In the early afternoon hours the day after the Dallas Cowboys selected Caleb Downs No. 11 overall in the first round of the 2026 NFL draft, the dynamic safety was waltzing into the team practice facility. Some fans waited outside.
One middle-aged patron with his toes hanging out of a pair of slides and gray shorts that stopped above his knees stepped to Downs, who provided a stark contrast in his tan suit and dress shoes. The fan sought an autograph, and Downs obliged. Then the fan said, “Hope you’re the next Ed Reed.”
Downs took a step in time with a brief pause, turned his head back to the fan and said, “I’m gonna be myself.”
A fan walked up to Caleb Downs for an autograph as he walked into The Star and said, Hope youre the next Ed Reed.
— Nick Harris (@NickHarrisFWST) April 24, 2026
Downs: Im gonna be myself. pic.twitter.com/Nby0roEVUb
Downs as himself is just what the Cowboys are looking for. They traded up in the draft to get him, after all. He can fill any of three positions in their secondary and has all the makings of an elite safety. The NFL experience of his father, Gary, and brother, Josh, has given him a roadmap to excel in the pros. He’s a film junkie with a gifted mind.
In all his decades as owner and general manager of Dallas, Downs is one of the most pro-ready prospects Jerry Jones said he’s ever seen.
“In talking with players that are through playing, and I ask them, ‘What do you know now that you'd like to have known when you first came in?’ And they said, ‘I'd like to have known it was more urgent than I gave it,’” Jones said. “It's Super Bowl time starts the first drill. And said, ‘Now that I've spent my time and had my years here, I just wish I had thought harder about how big time that first drill is, the next drill, the next drill.’ It's very intense from the time that you get in. He walks in knowing that.”
Throughout each of the two years he spent at Ohio State, Downs was the fuel that propelled the Buckeyes’ pass defense to a top-three unit nationally in yards per game and the entire defense to No. 1 in both yards and points per game. That’s both seasons. They were No. 1 in pass defense in 2025.
Downs collected a combined 150 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss, four interceptions and eight pass breakups in those two campaigns. He took home unanimous All-American honors both years and won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s best defensive back in 2025. He cultivated a warranted reputation as an obsessed and well-learned student of the game.
“It comes easy to him,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “It comes natural. I think you grow up in a football family, you've been around it. You've been exposed to it. But again, I think I said last night, one of the things we're so excited about is, it's not just him being able to process it. It's him being able to share and really command or demand that the guys around him are all on the same page. Great communicating is what leads to great defense. And that's the thing that you see in his personality. He does not have a problem taking charge.”
One of the additional attractions to Downs is his versatility. He played 241 snaps in the box, 240 at deep safety and 146 in the slot, per Pro Football Focus. His most natural spot might be free safety with his wide-range athleticism, instincts and processing, but he’s almost equally as viable at strong safety or nickel.
“I would say if you watch my career, I've played in a lot of different positions, shown a lot of versatility in different ways,” Downs said. “So, yeah, I feel confident in my abilities to play wherever they need me to. If that's nickel, in the slot, then that's what I'm going to do at a high level.”
Another factor that drew Dallas to Downs is his leadership. A team captain at Ohio State in 2025, confidence in his preparation led to confidence as a communicator on the field.
“When he came in on his top 30 visit, the other guys that were there on the visit were drawn to him,” Schottenheimer said. “They followed him. And you can't spend more than a few minutes with him to know that that's just who he is. And then you meet his parents. You spend time with them and his sister and obviously his brother. It was very apparent, and it was immediate.”
The Cowboys were one of Downs’ preferred destinations heading into draft day on Thursday, too.
“I always said as a kid, it's somewhere with no income tax (laughs),” Downs said. “So this made that list. And when I took my formal (visits), I knew it was. The funny thing is we didn't actually get a chance to do a formal (in Dallas), even though we were scheduled for one, scheduling mishap happened. So I got a chance to meet Coach Brian and felt a genuine connection there that continued at pro day. And when I came here for my 30 visit, I had a great feeling and vibe around meeting everybody. So I would say, yeah, I knew there was a big interest and felt it was a good opportunity for me.”
Downs was one of four Ohio State players drafted in the first round, joining wide receiver Carnell Tate (No. 4 overall, Titans), linebacker Arvell Reese (No. 5 overall, Giants) and linebacker Sonny Styles (No. 7 overall, Commanders). The Buckeyes had 11 players drafted in total.
"Caleb, you're a cowboy!" @calebdowns | @ATT pic.twitter.com/p5cECrFzf1
— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) April 24, 2026
Both Reese and Styles will now play in the same division as Downs, the NFC East. They’ll be rivals on the field, even if they never face each other directly, since all three play defense.
“The moment I seen Sonny, I said, ‘Yeah, you're a cop now. Get away from me,’” Downs said with a laugh. “But that'll be for (Schottenheimer) to handle on the offensive side of the ball. Yeah, I mean, it's an awesome feeling to know that they both got picked, along with Carnell.”
There are many other elements of the NFL that Downs is looking forward to. Learning a new level of play – he sees pro ball as a different game than the collegiate version. The Cowboys play the Colts, who his brother Josh Downs lines up at receiver for, in Indianapolis this season.
It’s that family that has Downs as ready as anything else for the pros. But if he keeps being himself, as he’s insisted, he could fast emerge as one of the NFL’s best defensive backs.
“When I got my stage, I can't tell you how impressed I am,” Jones said. “I had a good visit with his father and their background in coaching, and his grandfather's background in the service. And I thought that was one of the greatest stories, because his grandpa always treats him pretty militarily. Treats him like that.”
