00:00Caleb Downs will lead the Cowboys defensive turnaround maybe I don't know we'll see let's
00:05talk about him below the belt which is sponsored by window nation the uh the Caleb Downs buzz by
00:12the way seems to have just like if you get into normal practices safeties in these sort of things
00:18are not gonna stand out a lot of times f for minicamp it's just a like the you're it's gonna
00:24stand out more I think when you see a training camp and he's able to like you're in the team
00:28periods you're gonna be able to see him reading reacting doing different things but uh it's like
00:33I still like to heard you guys come in here you and brought us and say he's locked down the
00:38slot
00:38receiver he's a nickel corner locked down already it's not really the way they it's not well they
00:44don't run patterns oh they don't throw footballs and receivers out there no like people covering I
00:48heard cd burnt to rant and look I'm I'm I'm 98% joking what's the 2% the 2%
00:54is I I'd be really I
00:56I need to fill my hype cup of oh Caleb Downs lockdown cd on these couple plays you know who
01:03is smaller than I thought because I know like some people are like oh Downs is a little like
01:07shorter uh but you know who's I saw that on my tape on five minute tape you know you know
01:12who's
01:12smaller than I thought he was going to be is Jalen Thompson Thompson's just like he was like I
01:18think PJ Locke I don't know jump balls against us Cavante Turpin gonna be winning jump balls out
01:24there throwing it up in the red zone like McCarthy did so PJ Locke is 5'10 is his listed
01:30height and
01:31I thought Thompson was listed like 5'11 and a half they were standing next to each other I said
01:35they
01:35are eye to eye that Jalen Thompson's definitely like that's a 5'10 like solidly um but yeah you're
01:42you're seeing with Downs right now you know more I think the impressive thing with him is he's the
01:48one I hear the most at practice on the defensive side like the one I hear talking the most whether
01:53it be talking through drills or barking out an audible or whatever so like he's the one that I
01:58hear communicating the most which is good and and something that I think they want and you know
02:03Christian Parker got asked yesterday about hey are you okay being the savior like like that weight of
02:09being the savior of the franchise he's like yeah it's it's that's not really a good way to term it
02:13because it's such a collective effort or whatever but the reality is it's Parker and it's Downs and
02:19everybody's like you two got a hit that's the media that's my media guide cover that's it right
02:25there Parker and Downs yep Parker and Downs is the cover of my cowboy media guide like are they
02:29gonna be in the moment you have like that that practice field one of like look it starts here
02:33with these two it's that picture Mishota took Mishota took one of uh OTAs and it was like the two
02:39of
02:39them together and I was like I was in love he took it like I was standing next to John
02:42the other day
02:43and he was saying I just walked up to him I was like it was a crap photo and he
02:46was like that's
02:47why I take a thousand of them I was like do you really like he takes about a thousand photos
02:51at
02:51practice every day no he doesn't he does a thousand he does burst photos he's going on gbag today I
02:56don't know what a burst photo he was on gbag yesterday oh at five o'clock so they may have
03:00booked him two days in a row that sounds like something all right so over at nfl.com
03:07we used to have fish on every day that was a scheduled hit though it was a mad insider show
03:13when you when you got the text yesterday from mf mike I thought it was I thought that's what I
03:17thought it was first what text when you sent us about the interview at the since the interview
03:23oh florio yeah I thought it was fisher I got more text about that slavin interview I can't remember
03:28the last time it may have been the most about an interview since the jerry blow up you you got
03:32the
03:32you got the facetime in the very opening segment of jim rome's show yesterday phenomenal you were
03:38you were you saw that I mean however many people are subscribed to roku tv or whatever I don't know
03:43all right so over at nfl.com they've got the defining number for each nfl team so they're just basically
03:50you know it's like one of those by the number articles where they're like seven seven times on
03:54sunday the team converted third down or something like that and they're just using it as a hook to like
03:58basically you provide commentary about different things so for instance the eagles number the key
04:03number in 2026 is 28.4 percent and they said how will first time offensive coordinator sean mania's
04:09offense differ from that of his predecessor in philly here this is the media cover that's a good one
04:14that's the pig that's that should be the media guide cover though oh you're gonna have to photoshop
04:21like some blue and color around it all right um so kevin patulo used spread formations
04:2828.4 percent of plays last year second most in the league but manion is a branch off the sean
04:33mcvay tree which is now that type formation different things like that so that's kind of
04:36the hook that they're using so dallas's number their key number this season the defining number
04:40for the dallas cowboys is 15 so between eight free agent signings they write two trades and five
04:46draft picks that involve defensive players dallas added 15 new faces on that side of the ball this off
04:53season pro bowl pass rusher rashawn gary first round safety caleb downs and others joined 2025
04:59editions quinan williams and kenny clark in an attempt to resurrect a struggling unit that ranked
05:04bottom three in scoring and total defense in each of the last two campaigns and allowed a league high
05:0830.1 points per game last season and i think 15 doesn't even catch like the true weight of how
05:17much
05:18change has gone over on that side of the ball because 15 players what you're gonna end up with
05:2225 defensive players on the final roster you're probably sitting at like 40 right now whatever
05:27it is but it's not just 50 if you just jump back and say what did they enter training camp
05:32with last
05:33year what did it like because you're generally thinking this is kind of going to be your team
05:36you'll cut from here if you think about just who they added after training camp ready stewart who's on
05:42the roster right now quinnon williams kenny clark like go down the list of guys that they've
05:46and then you take guys who just weren't even active and ready to play then revel and overshown
05:51there is essentially an entirely new defensive roster that you're now working with than what
05:58had been available to you at the start of training camp last year which maybe it works maybe it doesn't
06:02but it speaks to speaks to two things one and i understand it's a little bit like when we talk
06:10about the defense attorney like push that you have to have if you're representing brendan source but you're
06:15something like that the fact that they insisted for so long players are fine last year defensive
06:21players are fine it's a you know we're we've got the players to make it happen really because you
06:26just churned over everybody yeah you got rid of everyone which just speaks to when they tell you
06:33some things you you need to take it with a grain of salt of like well the cowboys said this
06:37well jerry
06:37said this okay that's that's fine that they said it that doesn't often always mean necessarily
06:41that's genuinely how you can tell by about every year by about week four who they're gonna scapegoat
06:48at the end of the year i heard from somebody that they they had pretty much made up in their
06:54mind
06:55iber flus was gone by like week eight last year and that they just felt like there's not really
07:00somebody who can step in so our best shot at this point would be it just clicking for them so
07:05we'll
07:05stay with continuity but they had already kind of determined he was not coming back someone at the
07:08star just texted me nope to my media cover idea you're lost you're lost you're lost cowboys pr
07:13that's that's a bummer come on uh all right so in addition to that that's the one thing is that
07:19they're they're gonna sometimes just it's like anything you're you're you're fluffing it up or
07:23you're gonna conceal some things and so you talk a certain way and a lot of times teams will view
07:27it
07:27as there's no sense in being negative publicly if we're gonna be negative internally anyway if we're
07:31talking having hard conversations the outside world doesn't need to know about those hard conversations
07:35because it just creates distractions um but the other end of this is that's so many new pieces
07:41that you're gonna have to work in that i think that's where you really see the value of kenny clark
07:47or sean gary and pj lock all having done stuff with christian parker before and finding quinn and
07:52williams fits into what they do here caleb downs really does a lot of the different stuff in the
07:56secondary that you know christian parker is really like and yesterday christian parker this is cut seven
08:02peyton asked on how caleb downs or if caleb downs has met expectations to this point yeah he has i
08:08mean he's as advertised we spent significant time with him before the draft process we had a good
08:12feel on who he was and um knew some people at ohio state at alabama um in terms of how
08:17he was on the
08:18day-to-day that we maybe didn't see in that 30 visit or at the combine um but he's been
08:23doing great
08:23he's a worker you know he looks for coaching he you know he craves that he wants to be corrected
08:28he
08:28wants more information um and he works as hard as he can with the extras and everything else so
08:33um it's been good he's been good to work with and i think that he's trying to um advance at
08:38the right
08:38rate you know i think that we try to lessen those expectations in terms of what goes on outside of
08:44these walls there's a certain process to take as a as a rookie in general in the national football
08:48league and we try to abide by that process it's him mentioning there like he takes to tough coaching
08:54i remember zeke when he was in new england at the end of his time in new england
08:56he had gotten asked during a press conference like hey what's it like working with bill
09:00like he's he's kind of notorious for being a hard ass how's that been and zeke was like i love
09:06it
09:06personally he's like players like tough players usually like tough coaching like they may not
09:13always love it in the moment like i'm just like ah he's kind of being a jerk whatever but they
09:17like
09:17somebody who pushes them and is competitive and and like demands more out of them and that's
09:23something that i think you see is the reputation that downs has had pretty consistently is that he
09:28does want somebody who's going to demand more that he's going to as soon as he's comfortable doing it
09:32as a young player in that locker room he's going to demand more of guys we heard about tyler smith
09:37you played that clip on friday of tyler smith talking about how rashawn gary is demanding things of the guys
09:42on the defensive line already that is a different energy than what they had last year and i think it's
09:50the messy thing we talked about yesterday and not to compare caleb downs to leonel messy because
09:55caleb downs plays real football um but the thing we talked about with messy of like for all the hype
10:02he always meets the moment always it's it's way up there these are not those level expectations with
10:08downs but when you know anonymous reports are out there getting written by espn saying i asked a scout
10:15and they said this is the guy most likely to wear a gold jacket at the end of his career
10:18and you're talking about hey the whole fix on this three-year window for this organization is on
10:23you dude you the 21 year old coming in here like you are meant to be the guy who saves
10:28and stabilizes
10:29all of this on the defensive side of the ball and rescues these final years of dak prescott being
10:34really efficient and this offense being at a really high level everybody you talk to over there says
10:38he loves that like that caleb downs loves the pressure loves the moment loves the expectations
10:47and not in any sort of a oh yeah i want all this attention on me sort of way but
10:52just in a way of
10:52like yeah give me some stakes give me something to like push me even harder give me something to shoot
10:57for attain for and to live up to and i think you see that mirrored in christian parker and that's
11:03why
11:03when you hear parker talk there about him it's so glowing and how even though it's felt a little
11:09neutral watching the practices parker would say he's met every expectation you guys have set for him
11:13within these walls and the way we're handling our meetings and our practices except for being
11:19locked down a mandatory minicamp well he's not giving stuff up below the bell
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