Well, we made it everyone. The Dallas Cowboys held their first day of training camp yesterday, and it was a walkthrough—very walk-through-ish, but something clearly stuck out to me.
That was rookie Caleb Downs and the fact that he is going to truly be a difference maker on defense for Dallas. He will be a Swiss army knife for Christan Parker and that new-look defense.
During the first hour or so of camp, Downs did just about everything in three straight plays.
He started lining up near the edge, in the box, and played deep middle third. They wanted a versatile defensive back, and they plan to use Downs accordingly.
Only Getting Better
He is truly a major key to this defense. Obviously, the play of the defensive line and being better there is where it will start up front, but Downs giving the ability to move everywhere and do just about anything is massive.
It makes it impossible for other coaches to dial up a play based on and planning on him being in one spot, etc. you get the point.
Check out the video below. Downs was playing in the nickle which is what I want from him this year how bad the cornerback room is and P.J Locke was at the safety spot.
![Patrik [No C] Walker avatar](https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1946640157798494209/XNWwENH__bigger.jpg){kind=small}
both are facing the first team. #Cowboys
Locke was injured just a little bit after this video was taken, and he went to the tent for some work, but it was walking just fine.
I will live with these types of injuries all camp long. We have already seen like three or four starters on other teams have season-ending injuries, and sometimes you just can’t help it.
Shamar Stewart, the first round pick of the Bengals, got carted off this afternoon as well. It just sucks to see, but I am hoping the Cowboys can avoid all of those.
Back to Downs, like I noted, he was everywhere today and it is a good sign to see the trust that Parker already has in him.
Even before the Cowboys drafted him, he was the guy that I was hoping would fall to them if they did not take a top edge rusher. He is the highest rated rookie in Madden 27 for a reason and the fact that he was allowed to fall that far to Dallas is truly insane.
It was a good day overall, and Jonathon Mingo and Brev Spann Ford had a good day, but we will touch on some of those guys this weekend.
Let’s remember that it is only July 28th, this was also not a padded day so a lot of things are going to change and players are going to get banged up, etc. but I think all the players being there and getting snaps on day one is a major win for the Dallas Cowboys.
Goege Pickens was there and caught a handful of passes and ran one in for a touchdown and was having fun when the entire media wanted him not to come to camp because, my gosh, he is only making $30 million dollars this year to play the game of football, spare me.
A lot of more football to happen from now until the first game against the New York Giants on Sunday Night Football, but it is fun to enjoy this time of the year without any major drama from the front office of this football team. Now let’s just hope everyone can stay healthy and guys will continue to shine the way that this team needs them to.
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