Caleb Downs hasn’t played a snap for the Cowboys yet, and already his first NFL game carries two storylines at once: a debut against the Giants and the first step in a season that could end with Dallas finally producing a Defensive Rookie of the Year winner.
That second part is the bigger historical burden. The Cowboys have not had a Defensive Rookie of the Year since Mark Carrier won it in 1990, a 36-year drought at safety that has outlasted multiple eras of the franchise. Since the award began in 1967, only two safeties have ever won it — Erik McMillan in 1988 and Carrier in 1990 — and since 1991 only five defensive backs have taken the honor, with Sauce Gardner the most recent in 2022.
Downs enters that conversation before his first regular-season game, which is exactly why the Cowboys’ opener at MetLife Stadium feels like more than a standard Week 1 assignment. Dallas will face the New York Giants on Sept. 13, 2026, and Downs will make his NFL debut in the same game. The setting gives the debut a sharper edge: it is not just the first look at a highly drafted rookie, but the first chance to see whether the expectations attached to him can hold up against live NFL speed.
The expectations are already obvious. Downs was the 11th-overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, and he is listed as a defensive back on the Cowboys’ depth chart. He is also being talked about as one of the favorites for Defensive Rookie of the Year, with one NFL executive saying, “Not surprisingly, several NFL higher-ups believe that Downs will be the first safety to win the DROY award since 1991 because of how he will be used in Christian Parker’s defense.”
That usage is part of why the conversation has started so early. Downs has been working against CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens and Ryan Flournoy in practice to sharpen his game, and the Cowboys have already seen enough from him to vote him as a team captain in 2026 — with Von Miller among those backing him. Those are the kinds of details that explain why the rookie is being treated as more than a first-year player simply trying to find his footing.
He also arrives with a decorated college résumé. Downs won both the Lott Award and the Jim Thorpe Award, two honors that helped build the case that he was ready for the NFL stage before Dallas made him a top-11 pick.
Still, the first game matters because it is the first game. The Cowboys can talk about a DROY chase, and evaluators can project how Downs fits into Christian Parker’s defense, but none of that changes the fact that Sept. 13 is his introduction to the league. The Giants will provide the first real answer to the question hanging over the debut: is this the start of a season-long award push, or simply the beginning of a rookie’s career with a lot of attention attached to it?
For now, the Cowboys have both the player and the backdrop. Downs is in position to be in the DROY conversation all season long, but the conversation starts with one game, one stadium and one first snap.