Cam Newton had no trouble stirring the pot when he stopped by Josh and Caleb Downs’ podcast this week, and the former MVP used the Cowboys-Colts comparison to make his point loud and clear.
Newton, appearing on Wednesday’s episode of “Downs 2 Business,” said Caleb Downs is stepping into a much brighter spotlight with Dallas than his brother Josh has in Indianapolis. Josh Downs is a wide receiver for the Colts, while Caleb Downs was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys this year as a safety.
“Caleb, you are going to a star-infested team,” Newton said. “No pun intended, right?
You got the highest-paid quarterback on your team. You have one of the highest-paid receivers.
You got George Pickens at the helm. You got a very, you got the most influential team owner in all of sports, so you got to look at it like you are walking into a Netflix special.
Josh over there went to a team that's barely on Tubi.”
The numbers behind that contrast back up Newton’s point. The Cowboys are scheduled for six primetime games in the 2026 season, while the Colts have only two.
Indianapolis also opens the year with a 9:30 a.m. ET kickoff in London, and eight of its other games are set for 1 p.m.
ET.
Only six teams have fewer primetime games than the Colts this season: the New Orleans Saints, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Tennessee Titans, Miami Dolphins and Las Vegas Raiders.
Josh Downs didn’t push back on Newton’s broader idea. He answered on the same episode by acknowledging the difference in attention between teams that get the spotlight and teams that don’t.
“I see what he's saying though,” Downs said. “There's them teams that get all the [publicity] and then there are teams that don't get as much.”
The Colts’ season last year started fast, with an 8-2 opening, before quarterback Daniel Jones suffered a season-ending injury in Week 14. Indianapolis then dropped its final seven games and finished 8-9.
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