{"id":873788,"date":"2026-04-24T20:21:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873788\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T20:21:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:21:34","slug":"what-nick-saban-said-about-caleb-downs-after-cowboys-draft-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873788\/","title":{"rendered":"What Nick Saban Said About Caleb Downs After Cowboys Draft Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/onsi\/dallas-cowboys-hit-home-run-with-trade-up-for-caleb-downs-selection-01kpy5x0hmvm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dallas Cowboys<\/a> made a major splash in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/onsi\/dallas-cowboys-nfl-draft-tracker-round-1-every-pick-trade-instant-grade\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2026 NFL Draft<\/a> on Thursday in Pittsburgh. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">Dallas traded up one spot with the Miami Dolphins to No. 11 overall and selected <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/onsi\/dallas-cowboys-hit-home-run-with-trade-up-for-caleb-downs-selection-01kpy5x0hmvm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ohio State safety Caleb Downs,<\/a> a player who many Cowboys fans wanted to land in Arlington. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">The Cowboys now have a potential franchise safety on defense. Downs played at two elite programs in Alabama and Ohio State, and will now embrace another huge spotlight with Dallas.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">Based on what Downs&#8217; former head coach Nick Saban said on ESPN after watching Dallas make its selection, Cowboys fan should feel even more excited about what&#8217;s to come next season.<\/p>\n<p>Nick Saban Delivers Major Praise For Caleb Downs<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kpyjaxz27ggv4vbk01.jpg\" alt=\"Ohio State Buckeyes defensive back Caleb Downs\" title=\"Ohio State Buckeyes defensive back Caleb Downs\" width=\"5760\" height=\"5760\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"74\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Ohio State Buckeyes defensive back Caleb Downs poses on the red carpet before the 2026 NFL Draft at Point State Park.  | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"78\">Saban said during ESPN&#8217;s live draft coverage that Downs is one of the players he loved to coach the most during his career. Downs played one year at Alabama under Saban before transferring after the legendary head coach&#8217;s retirement.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7b\">&#8220;This is as fine a young man as you&#8217;re ever going to find to be a part of your team,&#8221; Saban said of Downs. &#8220;He&#8217;s a great competitor. He&#8217;s got great character. He&#8217;s so instinctive as a player. He can play downhill, he can play in the box, he can play the deep field, he can play man to man. This guy is a tremendous, tremendous person and competitor.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7e\">&#8220;And I tell you what, there&#8217;s only a few guys that I love more than this guy as a player on our football team, and he did a great job and improved even more in Ohio State.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">Saban could not have said anything more glowing of Downs. If he ends up being as good as Saban views him, the Cowboys would have secured a major draft steal at No. 11 overall. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7k\">Downs now joins a Dallas defense that has already experienced some notable changes at the safety position this offseason. The Cowboys have already signed Jalen Thompson (Arizona Cardinals) and PJ Locke III (Denver Broncos) in free agency. Dallas also chose not to re-sign safety Donovan Wilson and could part ways with veteran Malik Hooker before season begins.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7n\">The Cowboys have clearly signaled that changes need to be made in the secondary, and adding Downs is just the latest step toward Dallas&#8217; defense showing improvement in 2026.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7q\">\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/newsletter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for the Cowboys Daily Digest newsletter\u00a0<\/a>for more free coverage from<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Dallas Cowboys on SI<\/a>\u2014<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Cowboys made a major splash in the 2026 NFL Draft on Thursday in Pittsburgh. Dallas traded&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-873788","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-dallascowboys","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116461548228175160","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873788","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=873788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}