Caleb Downs 'is a football savant'; Cowboys exec gushes about new star

The Dallas Cowboys certainly seem to have hit a home run when it comes to their selection of Caleb Downs. The Ohio State product who ranked near or atop every evaluator's draft board comes with a reputation of being a coach on the field, and we're not talking about the "deer-in-headlights, can't-adjust-the-gameplan" type of coaching the Cowboys have employed over the last couple of seasons. No, Downs is a brainiac who is lauded for not just for his ability to dissect what's happening to him and around him, and not just for his ability to physically respond to what his brain is telling him.

Downs is also credited for absorbing just about everything there is to learn about the game of football and playing defense to the highest degree. So much so, Cowboys VP of Player Personnel Will McClay called him a football savant. Speaking to the DLLS podcast, McClay responded to a question from Clarence Hill about It hits you right away.

Typically, when you are looking at quarterbacks, you're going to explain a play to them and have them call it back and trying to figure out if a quarterback has the ability to call the play, direct everybody, do all those things. Then you flip it over on the defensive side, and you see a guy that can do it. And then when you talk to [Nick] Saban, and you talk to [Matt] Patricia and the coaches, and they talk about how smart he is, and how quickly he picks things up.

Then he came in here for a 30 visit. Not only did he talk about Alabama's defense, that he learned 3 years ago. He broke that defense down, he broke down Ohio State's defense, and he talked about our defense So that lets you know that that brain works.