{"id":874219,"date":"2026-04-25T11:21:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874219\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T11:21:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:21:20","slug":"dallas-cowboys-news-draft-provides-more-defensive-help-in-round-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874219\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys news: Draft provides more defensive help in Round 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">FRISCO \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/cowboys\/article\/dallas-cowboys-caleb-downs-nfl-draft-11th-overall-22222007.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cowboys first-round defensive back Caleb Downs<\/a> sat next to Nick Saban at Alabama so much that they started calling him \u201cLittle Nick.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">Saban had Downs\u2019 undivided attention, and Downs had Saban\u2019s respect. They spent only one season together, but it was enough for Saban to call Downs one of his favorite players he\u2019s ever coached.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">With that respect came honesty. So, when Downs entered the transfer portal in 2024 after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/other-schools\/2024\/01\/10\/alabama-head-coach-nick-saban-retires-after-17-seasons-coaching-crimson-tide\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Saban\u2019s retirement<\/a>, Saban was honest with his young protege. Downs\u2019 father, Gary, recalled Saban telling Downs he could transfer to Georgia and play in a similar system to what he ran at Alabama, or he could transfer to Ohio State, where an entirely new system and an entirely new position would be waiting. Downs wanted a new challenge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">\u201cWhen he got to Ohio State I asked him, \u2018How long is it going to take to learn coach [Jim] Knowles\u2019 system?\u2019\u201d Gary recalled on Thursday. \u201cHe said, \u2018Probably a week or week and a half.\u2019 And sure enough, within a week to a week and a half, he had it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">You\u2019ll never guess what Downs, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/cowboys\/article\/dallas-cowboys-caleb-downs-nfl-draft-11th-overall-22222007.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the 11th overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft<\/a>, said to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/cowboys\/article\/christian-parker-dallas-cowboys-nfl-draft-pressure-22203919.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cowboys defensive coordinator Christian Parker<\/a> after they hugged inside The Star in Frisco on Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">\u201cWhere\u2019s the playbook at?\u201d Downs said. \u201cWhen can I get it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">That mindset has helped Downs excel for his entire football career. He started on varsity as a freshman at Mill Creek High School and had five interceptions \u2014 a rarity inside a high school football hotbed like Gwinnett County, Ga. He later became a consensus five-star recruit, the Gatorade National Player of the Year and the No.1 safety recruit in the country. It continued in college where he became a three-time All-American in three seasons. He was considered by many to be one of the best prospects in the entire draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRISCO \u2014 Cowboys first-round defensive back Caleb Downs sat next to Nick Saban at Alabama so much that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,436,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-874219","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":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874219","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=874219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}