The Dallas Cowboys will enter training camp later this month with a revamped defense that is expected to make enough improvements from last year’s disastrous group to at least move from league worst to league average, a move that should be enough to vault the Cowboys back to the playoffs after consecutive seven-win seasons.
There are legitimate questions, though, about the rebuilding of the Cowboys defense. The pass rush does not have a true quarterback-hunting sack master. The linebacker group is very thin and marked by injury concerns. The cornerbacks, too, have injury worries. And maybe one of the most important questions, when it comes to the future and development of this defense, is that it will lean on a rookie draft pick to be one of its top players.
For the Cowboys’ sake, though, the positive there is that the rookie in question is Caleb Downs, who has quickly earned respect and praise from coaches and teammates in his two-plus months with the team.
Cowboys Signed PJ Locke This Offseason
That includes Cowboys free-agent signing PJ Locke, who was brought over from Denver in part because he has familiarity with new defensive coordinator Christian Parker from Parker’s time as the defensive backs coach with the Broncos. That’s proven important because Locke knows how Parker wants to play, and has been one of the players mentoring Downs thus far.
Locke described, in a recent appearance on the “Blueprint Podcast” how he began working out after practice with some young players, and how Downs began coming around.
Said Locke: “He kinda came, started being around a little bit. And I was like, ‘Come on, man.’ Now, every single day, every day after practice, we finding each other, to the point now where if I start without him, it is like, ‘Damn, bro, you gonna start without me?’ I said, ‘My fault, bro.’
“He sees it. They are going to look for him a lot. I just want to be there for him just to take him through that mental roller coaster—that mental roller coaster is going to hit at some point. It always does. I just want to make sure I am here for him to guide him through it—I went through it the worst way.”
Caleb Downs ‘As Advertised’
Locke did not compare himself to Downs physically, though they do play a similar style–hard-hitting, versatile, comfortable playing up and being used in the blitz–but did say he can see where the Cowboys rookie is mentally. Locke has been in the NFL for seven seasons but remembers the mental difficulties of being a rookie.
He appreciates the fact that Downs is full of questions. And he’s been willing to answer them. It is not a bad thing, of course, for the prized rookie to glom onto the one veteran at his position who has played for the defensive coordinator before.
Said PJ Locke: “He’s as advertised. The stuff you don’t see is, like, how he is in the film room. Super smart. Super willing. He asks questions and I feel like—early on, I am not gonna compare him to me because he is way ahead of me when it comes to that, went first round and all of that. But I see me and him, because we have a similar play style, and also the way he asks questions, he is always asking questions.”
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