The Dallas Cowboys are making sure they capitalize on having Christian Parker in the building as their defensive coordinator. During free agency, Dallas signed four secondary players: Jalen Thompson, Cobie Durant, P.J. Locke, and, most recently, Derion Kendrick. Parker’s meteoric rise in the coaching ranks has been driven by the work he’s done with players in the secondary, so their moves to turnover as much of the position from a year ago shouldn’t be by accident.
The Cowboys also have the opportunity
to add more pieces to the secondary through the NFL draft, and specifically with their two first-round picks. Players like Jermod McCoy and Mansoor Delane are often mocked to the Cowboys at 12th overall, while other names like Dillon Thieneman and Colton Hood have been mocked to Dallas at 20th overall. Either way, people in the media know it’s no secret Dallas could use an upgrade from last year’s historically bad pass defense.
One draft prospect Cowboys fans hope falls to Dallas at pick No. 12 is Ohio State safety Caleb Downs. However, the consensus is that he’s one of the best overall players in this draft class, so falling outside of the top ten seemed like a long shot for most of this draft cycle. However, NFL Network draft expert Daniel Jeremiah says not to give up hope just yet on the Caleb Downs hype train to Dallas.
Jeremiah adds context to why you could see a fall from Caleb Downs on draft night. A lot of it has to do with history, which has shown us teams don’t value the safety position enough to draft one in the top half of the first round, and talented players like Derwin James and Kyle Hamilton have gone later than they should have.
Look I call the Chagers games as my little side gig and if you would have told me before that draft and being on the set that Derwin James was gonna fall to I believe 17, Kyle Hamilton fell to 14, Nick Emmanwori I think was my 15th or 16th player fell to the second round. Like weird stuff happens and the safety position, and I don’t agree with it, has been pushed down to some degree and then with Downs you’re looking at someone who’s not big, he’s under six feet, he’s a little over 200 pounds, he’s got short arms, he doesn’t have a ton of splash plays. Like if you watched [Emmanuel] McNeil-Warren splash plays from Toledo, he’s got a lot more splash plays than Downs does. And I know there are teams who have McNeil-Warren over him. I know there are some teams that have [Dillon] Thieneman over him…so look I have Downs as my top safety, then McNeil-Warren, then Thieneman, but the fact that we’ve seen safeties historically drop a little bit and this guy when you put him on a stage next to Derwin, Kyle Hamilton, and Emmanwori he’s not gonna look like those guys, he’s just not so where does that place him. I think he’s more likely to go 10-20 than to go in the top ten.
Another reason why Downs’ name is being pushed down the board is that other players around him are starting to rise up. LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane had a stellar Pro Day and might go way before the Cowboys pick at 12. Rueben Bain Jr. from Miami came out of the NFL combine with all the attention on how short his arms are, but then quickly shifted the narrative back to his talent on the field, with a solid Pro Day, too, showcasing some elite bend in the position drills.
If Downs somehow finds his way to stare Dallas in the face in the first round, it could be another CeeDee Lamb situation where we look back at the draft and wonder why so many teams overthought themselves and let a great player slip through their hands. The Cowboys should be in love with the thought of adding someone like Downs to their remade secondary, as he can be used in a variety of ways, like we see with Kyle Hamilton, Derwin James, and even Brian Branch.
Brian Schottenheimer was enthusiastic about James before the Cowboys’ game against the Los Angeles Chargers last season, highlighting James’s importance to the Chargers’ defense. What once seemed impossible a few months ago may become a reality: Schotty might get the chance to draft his own version of James in Downs, who would play a central role for Dallas’ defense.
