Cowboys Making a Big Mistake With Their Running Back Rotation

With the Cowboys only a week away from the start of OTA's, Jerry Jones, along with the rest of the front office, has made it abundantly clear that the team will not be investing too much cap space into the running back position this off-season. Instead, they are going to operate the position by committee basis spearheaded by the return of Ezekiel Elliott, who was at one time the premier back of the league but is now a few years past his prime and will be looking to have a career resurgence going into this season.

Rico Dowdle and Malik Davis will make up the rest of the running back committee, along with occasional carries from Deuce Vaughn. All three running backs have had decent careers so far near the end of the Cowboys' depth chart, but none of these backs has shown enough promise to become potential starting running backs, which has caused fans to raise their eyebrows while looking at the Cowboys.

Over the past few years, it has become increasingly common for teams to prioritize positions other than the running back spot. Most teams have been allotting only a small amount of their cap space to spend on the running back position. Even though this may work for many teams in the NFL, it is not ideal for the Cowboys' personnel, especially with Dak Prescott expected to be under center once again this year. 

Throughout Prescott's career, he has been a significantly better quarterback when he gets strong run support from his backs. Prescott put up career numbers in years that his backs have gotten at least 1,000 or more rushing yards. Compared to years his backs could not get at least 1,000 yards, he struggled to remain an above-average quarterback.

Proof of this would be that Prescott's 2019 and 2021 seasons were arguably the best seasons of his career so far and also happen to be years that Elliott was able to gain over 1,000 yards throughout the season. While Eliott's worst two years with the Cowboys were in 2017 and 2022, it also happened to be the worst two seasons of Prescott's career.  

With Prescott appearing to be a notably better quarterback when paired with an above-average running back, the Cowboys front office's decision to undervalue the running back position going into this upcoming season is perplexing. 

There's a chance that Mike McCarthy, who is the current architect of the Cowboy's offense, could find a way to create an offense that runs efficiently without a starting caliber running back although statistics prove otherwise. The lack of urgency in the Cowboys finding a running back is most likely another oversight by the front office, which is something fans have grown accustomed to during Jerry Jones' almost thirty-year reign as Cowboy general manager.

Overall, the Cowboys' decision to forgo investing in a new running back, although it would most definitely benefit their aging quarterback whose window is starting to close, should make fans wonder how serious the organization is about wanting to be in contention this year. 

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