Ohio State safety Caleb Downs missed out on a formal visit with the Dallas Cowboys. But when the 2026 NFL Draft opened on Thursday night, April 23, in Pittsburgh, they had already traded up to pick no. 11 to make sure it didn’t matter. “It all worked out in the end,” Downs said after his name was called. And incidentally, it also worked out well enough for Micah Parsons to pick up his phone.

Parsons, the 5x Pro Bowler who got traded to the Green Bay Packers from Dallas last season, connected on a video conference on Bleacher Report’s live draft show after the Cowboys picked him 11th overall. The congratulations were standard, but Parsons went a step beyond. 

“They’re not drafting you to be a player. They’re drafting you to be the player that you already are, to come into that system and dominate,” Parsons said. “So you’re not here to be behind nobody. You’re not here to say, ‘Yo, I’m trying to learn from him,’ and so and so. No. You’re here to start, be the guy. You are the guy. Like I said earlier in the draft, you don’t wish upon a star, you land on it.”

Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer confirmed after Round 1 that Downs is expected to start immediately in the nickel. Parsons was just saying what the Cowboys’ front office had already decided. But the message means more because Parsons said it.

Parsons grew up a Cowboys fan, wore blue and white for four seasons, and became the most disruptive defender in Dallas since DeMarcus Ware. When the contract standoff with owner/general manager Jerry Jones broke down last year, Parsons’ agent David Mulugheta made it clear that Micah had always wanted to remain a Cowboy. But they traded him to Green Bay anyway. He signed a four-year, $188 million extension with the Packers and moved on. But when a player of his caliber, with that kind of history, tells a rookie he is “the guy,” it sticks. 

But Parsons wasn’t just praising Downs. He also asked Downs to go after his former teammate. 

“Do me one favor, do not let CeeDee Lamb get into you,” Parsons said. “Take care of him for me, please. You’re the only one I believe that can do it.”

The Lamb line is playful, but not a throwaway. Lamb is a five-time Pro Bowler and the best receiver on Dallas’ roster, closely followed by George Pickens. Every training camp rep between Lamb and Downs will tell defensive coordinator Christian Parker something real about where the rookie stands. Micah Parsons ran those reps for four years. He knows what going up against Lamb looks like, and he is telling Downs that it is the standard now.

That standard matters more than it sounds. Dallas allowed 30.1 points per game last season – the worst in franchise history. Parker came in to fix a defense that had no identity and no discipline in the back end. Downs is the anchor of that rebuild, and Parsons is making sure he knows it before training camp opens.

What Caleb Downs brings to Christian Parker’s defense

Parker didn’t wait for draft night to make his case. Cowboys VP of player personnel Will McClay revealed after Round 1 that Parker spent the entire pre-draft week sending him pictures of Downs and Malachi Lawrence (Dallas’ other pick at no. 23) until the point was made. Jerry delivered both the players Parker wanted. And Downs’ fit in the defense is very specific. 

Parker’s 3-4 base – built on Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s framework – demands a safety who can move around. Over his college career, Downs lined up as a box safety on 35% of his snaps, deep safety on 37%, and slot corner on 23%. Parker has already described the nickel role in his scheme: “a corner sometimes, he is safety sometimes, he’s a backer sometimes.” Downs has been all three, and fits that job description perfectly.

“He’s a multiplier,” McClay praised Downs after the pick. “He’s going to make other people better.”

Even Jerry Jones called him “a quarterback of the defense,” and Downs has spent three years proving he can handle it all. Through Alabama and Ohio State, he totaled 257 tackles, 12 passes defended, 16 tackles for loss, and six interceptions across 44 games. He won the 2025 Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s best defensive back and also got the Lott Trophy. Next-Gen Stats gave him a production score of 81, highlighting elite football IQ as his defining trait. In Parker’s new and versatile system, Downs can easily tip the balance in Dallas’ favor every time he takes the field.

Meanwhile, the draft-position discount on safeties is real, and it routinely costs teams. Only eight safeties have been picked in the top-10 since 2000, with Jamal Adams in 2007 being the last. Downs was widely projected as a top-5 talent, but Dallas got him at 11 instead. The position might carry the stigma, but Dallas saw enough on film to make the move.

Micah Parsons told Caleb Downs he was “the guy.” Schottenheimer has already told us where Downs starts. He landed on the star, and now the only question left is whether he delivers. And we’ll just find that out through training camp and beyond.