The Dallas Cowboys drafted Caleb Downs. Just a few months ago that sentence sent everybody around here into a fever dream.
Amazingly, given the level of hype and anticipation around him, Downs has sort of cooled. This has had nothing to do with him individually as by all measures he had a fantastic training camp and ramp-up to the season, but so many other storylines popped to where the conversation shifted a bit.
Still, Downs is hardly hiding or someone that people have forgotten about. He remains
one of the most important members of the team. It is interesting in this sense that ESPN, who laid out “surprise predictions” for every team, included Downs for the Cowboys.
Don’t be surprised if … rookie safety Caleb Downs never leaves the field.
What I’m hearing: OK, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but the Cowboys believe they can use Downs in a ton of different ways. In their ideal world, he and veteran safety Jalen Thompson are interchangeable in the safety and nickel roles. Downs got a lot of work at nickel during camp, and Dallas has faith in his ability to play deep safety. The Cowboys believe in his ability to cover top receivers if that’s what they need from him, and they think he will be instantly capable of communicating at a high level and helping keep things organized on the defense.
The Cowboys drafted Downs hoping they could plug and play him on defense in Year 1, and to their absolute delight, he has shown himself to be just that in every situation they’ve thrown at him so far. They’re counting on him to handle a key role in the revitalization of their defense under new coordinator Christian Parker, and I expect him to play a ton.
Dan Graziano is the author in question here, someone with a long history covering the NFC East, so full and absolute respect. But what would be surprising about this?
This actually feels like the complete and total opposite of a surprise. I don’t think there is anyone here or any Cowboys fan in general who expects Downs to be utilized less than 100%.
His versatility is a huge reason for this. It has long been assumed that Christian Parker will move him around and that he will at times be in nickel. Maybe the Cowboys will want to play Downs exclusively at one position.
There is certainly a discussion to be had around versatility and too much of it being a bad thing. Byron Jones, as an example, never fully settled at a position with the Cowboys and many people thought that limited his potential to really thrive at any one spot.
This isn’t to say that this is who Caleb Downs is or what his future holds. But whatever he does, none of it will be surprising in this sort of way.
