{"id":873774,"date":"2026-04-24T20:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873774\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T20:00:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:00:36","slug":"dallas-cowboys-news-2-difference-makers-and-additional-day-3-draft-ammo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873774\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys news: 2 difference-makers and additional Day 3 draft ammo"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRISCO, Texas — Thanks to the 74th draft-day trade of the Jerry Jones era, the Dallas Cowboys<\/a> selected Ohio State<\/a> defensive back Caleb Downs<\/a> in the first round.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys moved up one spot, to No. 11, in a trade with the Miami Dolphins<\/a>, giving up the 12th pick and two fifth-round selections (Nos. 177 and 180) to select a player who immediately fills a role on their defense.<\/p>\n

With the No. 12 pick, the Dolphins selected Alabama<\/a> offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Downs started every game he played in college (44), first at Alabama and then the past two years at Ohio State. He was credited with 256 tackles, 16 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, 16 pass deflections and six interceptions.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys had to sweat out the selection as a number of defensive players went off the board, like Mansoor Delane<\/a> (Kansas City) and Sonny Styles<\/a> (Washington) at Nos. 6 and 7, respectively, but were aided by three straight offensive players taken.<\/p>\n

To make sure they got Downs, one of the 12 players that had a first-round grade on their draft board, the Cowboys were willing to part with two Day 3 selections.<\/p>\n

Asked at the recent NFL annual meeting what the Cowboys\u2019 biggest need was, coach Brian Schottenheimer said nickel player. Downs can come in immediately and handle that role. In free agency, the Cowboys signed safeties Jalen Thompson<\/a> and P.J. Locke<\/a>, as well as cornerback Cobie Durant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Downs was the 2025 winner of the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation\u2019s top defensive back, and he is a two-time unanimous All-American. In his two seasons with the Buckeyes, he did not allow a touchdown as a primary defender and had four interceptions and nine pass breakups.<\/p>\n

He is the highest defensive back selected by the Cowboys since 2012 when they moved up from No. 14 to No. 6 to take cornerback Morris Claiborne<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRISCO, Texas — Thanks to the 74th draft-day trade of the Jerry Jones era, the Dallas Cowboys selected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,436,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-873774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-cowboys","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys-news","12":"tag-dallascowboys","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116461464656511442","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873774","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=873774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}