The Jaydon Blue experience has not gone to plan thus far for the Dallas Cowboys and their fans. Cowboys fans were clamoring for the rookie to play during the first month of the regular season, as they believed that veteran running back Miles Sanders was not the answer at RB2.
Well, they got their wish as Blue made his debut in Week 5 against the New York Jets for an injured Sanders. The rookie running back didn’t do much, totaling seven yards on four carries, while adding a kick return for 32 yards.
Then, in last week’s loss to the Carolina Panthers, Blue had zero yards on three carries and 40 yards on two kick returns. As you can imagine, Cowboys fans have been underwhelmed by the rookie thus far. However, according to Tommy Yarrish of DallasCowboys.com, OC Klayton Adams isn’t ready to close the book on the rookie yet.
"It's been a really small sample size because we haven't really gotten to a point in a game yet where we've been able to get him out there on a drive and give him three or four carries in a row, or quite frankly, just to give him some space to put him in. So I think that's still TBD, we're certainly going to see as we go just because of the injuries."
Klayton Adams Gives Blunt Assessment of Jaydon’s Blue Start to Rookie Year
In one respect, Adams is right in that we’re working with a small sample size when it comes to Blue’s evaluation. It’s hard to draw any conclusions on an NFL player after two games, let alone a rookie running back, who has only gotten seven carries.
That being said, Adams and Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer might need to take the OC’s advice and give Blue multiple carries to see if he can pick up positive yards or break one.
When he was coming out of the University of Texas, one thing that stood out about Blue’s game was his home run hitting speed and being able to find those extra gears. We haven’t seen that yet early in his Cowboys career, but there’s still time to figure it out.
We know that Javonte Williams is the bellcow in the Cowboys’ running back room and has done phenomenally this season.
However, Dallas needs to find a way to get Blue in as the change-of-pace guy behind Williams.
With Sanders done for the rest of the year, the Cowboys cannot pile a back of work on Williams, especially if they want to keep him fresh for the rest of the season.
Therefore, Dallas’s offensive coaching staff has to find a way to get Blue going on the ground and in the passing game, too. Through two games, Blue doesn’t have a single target, which should not be the case.
In his last year with the Longhorns, Blue exploded in the passing game with 42 receptions for 368 yards and six touchdowns. If the Cowboys can find a way to unlock Blue, this offense will be that much scarier going forward.