Caleb Downs is walking into a rookie season with a real path to hardware, but the road to Defensive Rookie of the Year is crowded.
The biggest thing working in Downs’ favor is that he’s not a standard case. He’ll be playing in the nickel for Dallas, which makes him a little different from the usual award favorites.
That matters because, as the reporting notes, it’s genuinely rare for a safety or a secondary Swiss Army Knife to win DROY. Still, Downs is a rare player himself, and that could help him buck the trend.
The most obvious threats are the players who can pile up splash plays in a hurry. David Bailey, the top EDGE rusher taken in the 2026 NFL Draft, lands with the Jets at +500 via FanDuel and gets a clear starting job right away. If he starts collecting sacks, he’ll stay in the thick of the race.
Rueben Bain Jr. is right there too at +550 via FanDuel. He was a force at Miami, slipped in the draft because of arm-length concerns, and now has a chance to hit the ground running in Tampa Bay if those worries don’t slow him down.
Then there’s Arvell Reese at +800 via FanDuel, and he brings a different kind of problem for everyone else. Downs’ Ohio State teammate went fifth overall to the Giants, and his blend of versatility and all-around skill gives him a chance to stuff the stat sheet in 2026.
On the Cowboys side, another defensive name is drawing plenty of attention: DeMarvion Overshown.
Benjamin Solak of ESPN picked one breakout candidate for every team, and for Dallas he went with Overshown, who is now in a very important contract year. He has only played 13 career games, but there’s real belief that he could turn this into a huge season and position himself for a major deal in 2027.
Solak’s optimism comes with a warning label, though. He wrote, “Overshown did not look like himself after returning last season in Week 11 -- he had only one TFL in six games after posting eight in 13 games during the 2024 season.
He cleared 19 mph in top speed seven separate times in the 2024 season, per NFL Next Gen Stats; he never cleared it in 2025. As he gets further away from the injury, he’ll hopefully recover the top speed that allowed him to play sideline to sideline and trigger quickly on those behind-the-line opportunities.”
This is the first time since his rookie year in 2023 that Overshown is heading into training camp fully healthy. He isn’t coming off an injury this time, and the Cowboys should have him full go for the first time in his NFL career. Even so, the team is expected to handle him carefully during camp, which could mean several veteran rest days.
The offensive side of the ball has its own concern, and it starts up front.
Tyler Guyton, the former first-round pick, is set to battle 2024 seventh-rounder Nathan Thomas for the left tackle job in what could become a defining stretch for the No. 29 overall pick in the 2024 draft. The latest rankings of the league’s top 10 offensive tackles didn’t include a single Cowboy, not even as an honorable mention, which says plenty about how much proving ground this line still has.
That left tackle situation could end up shaping the Cowboys’ NFC East hopes. Dak Prescott can only do so much if he’s not protected, and while he has shown he can play at an MVP level when healthy, his injury history is part of the equation too. If Dallas wants to take the next step and get back to the postseason for the first time in three years, keeping Prescott upright has to be part of the plan.
There is some encouraging news for Guyton, at least. He’s spent the offseason working out with some of the league’s elite offensive linemen, a sign that he’s taking the challenge seriously. Now the Cowboys need that work to show up when the real reps begin.
And then there’s Stefon Diggs, who made a bold claim about his place in the receiver hierarchy.
“My opinion, I can compete with anybody,” Diggs said in a video on his YouTube channel last week. “But take those [top wide receivers] as your 1s, right? You can’t name a No. 2 better than me.”
Diggs also said “presumably” every NFL team has its No. 1 receiver in place for this season, though he argued there are only seven “real [No.] 1s” in the league.
“There’s not a No. 2 on a team -- let’s presumably give people the credit and just say, ‘OK, you want to take the No. 1 spot away,’” Diggs said. “Name your No. 2 receiver right now, and tell me how much he makes, and then my last question is: Is he better than me?”
At 32, Diggs may be selling himself a little short on the league’s top duos. The Bengals have Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins; the Cowboys have CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens; the Rams have Davante Adams and Puka Nacua; the Patriots have Brown and Romeo Doubs; the Lions have Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams; and the Vikings have Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.
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