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Caleb Downs #2 was drafted in the first round by the Dallas Cowboys.

If all goes according to plan, the Dallas Cowboys may well have brought together one of the more promising player-coach situations in the NFL in the last couple of months. First, the team hired Christian Parker to be defensive coordinator, giving the Cowboys the kind of young, new defensive outlook the team has almost never had, not with its proclivity for hiring retread coaches to be coordinators. But Parker has a creative defensive mind as a coach, and he might have just gotten the most creative defensive mind in this year’s NFL draft with the selection of Caleb Downs at No 11.

It’s a pairing with massive potential to change the Cowboys’ defensive fortunes, after they gave up a franchise-record 511 points last season, worst in the NFL. The Cowboys were not expecting to get Downs with their pick at No. 12, and were spooked enough about a team moving up to select him that the Cowboys traded two fifth-rounders to move up and assure Downs was on the board.

Caleb Downs Wants Cowboys Defensive Playbook

It was not long after the NFL draft that Downs had a chance to meet with Parker, and the first question he asked the new Cowboys DC was telling–and should have Cowboys fans excited.

Speaking during his introduction to the Cowboys in a Friday press conference,  Downs said he was in need of a copy of the Cowboys’ playbook.

Said Downs: “Super-excited, honestly. I asked him, first thing, where’s he playbook at? Where’s the playbook and when can I get it? Just because I am all about ball and that’s what I am looking forward to doing. So, he has been genuine since the moment I met him and I am glad he got to meet my parents and my sister.”

Parker, of course, was hired by the Cowboys in the offseason to replace Matt Eberflus, and had been the Eagles‘ defensive backs coach before landing in Dallas.

Star-Struck by Dak Prescott

Downs also admitted he was happy to be be playing in Texas and avoiding state income taxes, which drew a laugh, and also got himself into some hot water, potentially, with Cowboys star quarterback Dak Prescott, who had him star-struck.

Said Downs: “Dak Prescott, he hit me up. That was the special one because I been watching him since probably when I was in middle school and he was at Mississippi State. Just excited to get to work.”

Downs also said that playing for Ohio State, where he helped the Buckeyes to a championship in the 2024 season, as well as for Alabama before he transferred, has helped get him ready for the challenge of the NFL.

“I think playing against high-level competition is what it’s all about,” Downs said. “At the end of the day, iron does sharpen iron, so, just the ability to know that I have played in big games, and I have competed at a high level, and I have played my best in those games, it’s a positive to know that I can do that at any level.”