A full week after the NFL draft, six of the seven Dallas Cowboys draft picks have been signed. Rookie camp also started this week and everyone showed up and has started the year strong.
The Cowboys have signed 6 of their 7 draft picks before the first rookie minicamp practice that starts today at The Star. Only Malachi Lawrence is unsigned, but the expectation is his contract gets done once other deals in his pick range (No. 23) are finalized. Nothing to worry about.
Nothing but good news thus far outside of Dallas, and they are going to need two, if not three, maybe even four of these rookies to provide some solid snaps this season.
Caleb Downs Contract
While I am talking about it, maybe you missed it, but Downs signed a four-year, fully-guaranteed, $28.9 million deal.
It carries an average annual value (AAV) of around $7.23 million and an estimated signing bonus of $17.5 million, according to Spotrac. The total value of the deal is about $2 million less than what he would’ve received if the New York Giants selected him at No. 10.
NFL rookie contracts are slotted, meaning the player’s draft position determines their contract.
They are fixed and limit the haggling in negotiations to things like offset language. The signing also ends the possibility of any potential holdout from the former Buckeyes star, which has been a problem the Cowboys experienced with veteran players on the roster in recent years.
Downs started his collegiate career with the Alabama Crimson Tide, where, as an 18-year-old freshman, he tallied over 100 total tackles and was named an All-American. After Nick Saban retired, Downs transferred to Ohio State, where he continued his dominance.
In two seasons with the Buckeyes, Downs won a national championship and was a 2x Unanimous All-American.
In 2025, he was the Big-10 Defensive Player of the Year.
1st: Caleb Downs, safety
1st: Malachi Lawrence, OLB
3rd: Jaishawn Barham, ILB
4th: Drew Shelton, OT
4th: Devin Moore, CB
4th: LT Overton, DE
7th: Anthony Smith, WR
Christian Parked was asked about Downs after the conclusion of the first day Friday.
“Premium instincts,” he said of the Cowboys’ 11th-overall pick. “You can tell his football intellect, the way he directs traffic out there, the way he reads and reacts, his brain is connected with his feet. It was constant. You’re watching three years of film, and there’s not a difference in the tape.
“He’s constantly making the right decision, constantly down in the football, constantly making contact with it, constantly just in the right spot. It’s just a smooth, smooth transition and smooth play.
As for Lawrence, nothing to worry about. He will end up getting his contract and he showed up to the first day of rookie camp yesterday, so nothing to worry about there.
Now with all these guys signed and in case you missed it George Pickens signed his tag, meaning he will indeed either have to show up, or he starts to get fined when mandatory camp starts, so this is turning into the best possible offseason for the Dallas Cowboys.
For the time being, it is nice to see that the drama around the Star has stopped, and this team can worry about football, and leave it at that.
I am sure something will come up later this summer, but let’s just stick to football while we can and enjoy what we are getting from this team for the first time in a long time. Long way to go, but I can’t tell you that three months ago I thought things would have shaken out this good and here we are.
It is nice to see the team finally seem to care about the product on the field and not the headlines on the TV shows.
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