Buzz for the Ohio State safety started early in the pre-draft evaluation cycle. Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer called Downs “the best football player in the 2026 draft class.” Then The Athletic’s Dane Brugler revealed that multiple scouts have referred to Downs as the best safety they’ve personally scouted EVER.<\/p>\n
But with two months to go before opening night of the draft, the hype train is bound to hit a couple bumps.<\/p>\n
Enter NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah.<\/p>\n
Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n “He’s a little bit of a tricky one, for me, to be honest with you,” Jeremiah said of Downs in a recent interview<\/a>. “I hear him talked about like he’s this all-time elite player; I don’t see that on tape.”<\/p>\n That’s not to say Downs isn’t a top talent in this class and a bona fide first-round selection. But given the NFL’s rookie wage scale<\/a>, which basically assigns contract amounts to incoming players based on draft position, how highly Downs comes off the board will be the sticking point.<\/p>\n Safeties are among the NFL’s lowest-paid players across the board, comparatively speaking, and taking one in the first part of the first round could mean a team is overpaying him- relative to the market- right out of the gates.<\/p>\n For instance, if a team were to agree that Downs is the best player in this year’s class and make him the No. 1 overall pick, he’d get a contract worth $54.94 million. That would be the 7th-largest deal for any safety across the league, by Over The Cap’s current figures<\/a>.<\/p>\n That almost certainly won’t happen. But at what point will a club decide a first-round investment in Downs has enough upside?<\/p>\n The Cowboys, like most organizations, have tended to make other positions a higher priority, especially early. In the franchise’s history, the Cowboys have taken only one safety anywhere in the first round; Roy Williams was the No. 8 overall pick in 2002’s draft.<\/p>\n Williams played in Dallas for seven seasons, made five Pro Bowls, and was a first-team All-Pro in 2003.<\/p>\n This year, of course, Dallas has two swings at the plate in the first round, though the notion of Downs slipping all the way to 20th seems unrealistic.<\/p>\n If Downs, in fact, comes off the board within the top 20, he’ll automatically be in very heady company. Over the past 10 drafts, just seven safeties have been selected earlier:<\/p>\n Kyle Hamilton, No. 14 (Baltimore, 2022)Minkah Fitzpatrick, No. 11 (Miami, 2018)Derwin James, No. 17 (L.A. Chargers, 2018)Jamal Adams, No. 6 (N.Y. Jets, 2017)Malik Hooker, No. 15 (Indianapolis, 2017)Karl Joseph, No. 14 (Oakland, 2016)Keanu Neal, No. 17 (Atlanta, 2016)<\/p>\n If Downs can legitimately be mentioned in the same breath as those safeties, then the Cowboys should have no qualms about taking him at No. 12… if he’s even still there.<\/p>\n And even if it feels like overpaying at first.<\/p>\n Pre-draft hyperbole? Only time- and Downs’s career- will tell.<\/p>\n Added Jeremiah: “I see a very dependable, reliable, steady, solid player who, when you talk to people around there, just talk about some of his value doesn’t necessarily always show up unless you know what he’s doing in terms of the communicating, the leading, the organizing, getting that whole group together.”<\/p>\n Downs certainly sounds like the kind of young player that the Cowboys’ new defensive coaching staff can build their unit around for years to come.<\/p>\n Let the debate continue.<\/p>\n Todd is on X at @ToddBrock24f7<\/a>. Also, follow Cowboys Wire on Facebook<\/a> to join in on the conversation with fellow fans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 18, 2026, 1:28 p.m. CT The Caleb Downs debate will likely rage on… right up until the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[95878,7,6,15,96666,96667,95882,95930,96256,101771,95896,95888,95895,95899,96716,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-761017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-nfl-draft","12":"tag-sstssportsnflcowboys","13":"tag-sstsncowboys","14":"tag-tagamerican-football","15":"tag-tagbig-ten-conference-football","16":"tag-tagdallas-cowboys","17":"tag-tagmalik-hooker","18":"tag-tagnational-sports","19":"tag-tagnfl","20":"tag-tagnfl-hub","21":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","22":"tag-tagsports-illustrated","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116093619303613838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771447933_353_86373428007-square-1.jpg\")