The Dallas Cowboys have had only one player win Defensive Rookie Of the Year, and that was Micah Parsons back in 2021.
He was a unanimous selection after recording 13.0 sacks and 20 tackles for loss. That seems like more than five years ago, and honestly, who would have thought that he would no longer even be part of this team.
It really is crazy when you think about it. We have been focused so much on the negative impact that it brought, but honestly, I think the Cowboys are better today on that side of the ball than before he got traded.
He is clearly the best player, but the team reloaded with a lot of bodies on that side. Still, the Cowboys, I think, have two guys that could become only the second player in franchise history to win the award.
I will start with the obvious choice first, and then I am going to give you a look shot, but I am not the only player who thinks so.
The most important thing right off the jump is that Downs is being coached by Christian Parker, who comes from the Eagles and the Broncos, where he turned three players into Pro Bowl guys and two of them into All-Pro guys.
Outside of that, the fact that Dallas got down as late as they did is just something that does not happen with the Cowboys. Guys like this do not fall to them. We as the fan base never get this lucky.
Cowboys DC Christian Parker on Caleb Downs: “He’s as advertised. We spent significant time with him before the draft process, so we had a good feel on who he was and knew some people at Ohio State, at Alabama, in terms of how he was on the day to day that we maybe didn’t see in… pic.twitter.com/qoTecqzMui
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) June 18, 2026
Downs is a multiplier. His ability to defend the run from any number of positions on defense will help the entire unit prevent explosive plays, which, as fans both know intuitively and saw the past few seasons, can derail a unit and have a ripple effect on the offense.
He is probably going to play a lot in the Nickle, but until we really see what Parker has played for him, I will just sit back and let the rest of the team talk great about him and can’t wait to see more of him during Training Camp.
Currently, Downs is 4th of the betting odds at +850 to win the award.
Malachi Lawrence is the long shot here, but I am not the only one that thinks he has a chance to be a good player right off the bat for Dallas.
His odds are at +2200, he is only 11th on the list, right outside of the top ten to win the awards and he is above Keldric Faulk who was...
