The Dallas Cowboys have completed their first practice of 2026 training camp in Oxnard, California, and crossing this big offseason milestone feels so good. A “boring” offseason storyline wise has put an even more intense focus on the football activities of the team. On day one, this featured a lot of expected, familiar names on offense doing their thing, and a whole host of new ones in Christian Parker’s defense doing the same – including first-round pick Caleb Downs.
The narrative on the Cowboys
defense until they prove otherwise is that they were abysmal in 2025, and no single player acquisition or coaching change can fix this. While that may be true, the Cowboys did find a brilliant way to land the best defensive back in this year’s draft, likely it’s most versatile overall defender, and an elite communicator that’s highly coachable to pair with a defensive back expert in Parker. Step aside 31 other fanbases, Cowboys fans should finally feel justified to let the hype train leave the station when it comes to year one for Downs.
The Cowboys wasted no time utilizing Downs in a variety of ways at his first practice. Rookie minicamp and OTAs set the expectation that Downs would be a primary nickel defender, which Downs did play up against the first team offense, with P.J. Locke (who got banged up in practice as well), Malik Hooker, and Jalen Thompson getting the deep safety reps.
Downs also lined up off the edge, in the box, and deep in the secondary according to reports, and came from a deep position to recover a forced fumble by Rashan Gary on running back Phil Mafah for his first splash play of camp.
When Downs was in the nickel, the Cowboys’ starting cornerbacks from the jump at practice were Cobie Durant and DaRon Bland. For a defense that gave up an onslaught of big plays over the top last season, this is as good of a place to start on the back end as one could hope for. The next positive things to look for in the secondary would be more work from Shavon Revel and Caelen Carson, and rookie Devin Moore as potential further options at cornerback, but most of all above all this is the development of Downs in the perfect environment to really hit the ground running as a rookie.
The Cowboys’ second practice on Thursday will begin at the same time as their first, and will be their last until the pads come on for the first time on Monday, August 3rd. With the most experienced safety on this roster, Malik Hooker, already finding a way to make a physical play with a “deck” of Phil Mafah without pads on, the rest of the Cowboys safety group will be extra motivated to make a play in this practice as well, and will have the motivation from Parker to do so given the energy he brings to the practice field. This should be another big day to watch for Caleb Downs to do new things that make us go “wow”.
