A Dallas Cowboys football blog

Cowboys will likely have RB by committee in 2024

1 Comment

When Tony Pollard left the Dallas Cowboys for the Tennessee Titans, I had a feeling this would be the outcome at some point.

Dallas signed Royce Freeman on Tuesday, leaving them with a running back room of Freeman, Rico Dowdle, Deuce Vaughn, Malik Davis, and Hunter Luepke.

Yikes

Yikes is right; Freeman was drafted by the Broncos in 2018 and has played for four teams in his career. He played for the Rams last season and ran for 319 yards on 4.1 yards per carry and 2 TDs. That was his best season since 2019.

Freeman has never been a featured back.

His best seasons came in his rookie and sophomore seasons with the Broncos in 2018 and 2019.

His rookie season is the only time he has run for over 500 yards, during which he also scored five rushing touchdowns.

After those two seasons, Freeman then played for the Texans and Panthers but didn’t do much. He was more on the special teams unit than running the rock.

Now, he walks into the Cowboy’s running back room with the most experience. It’s so sad.

Yes, they will likely draft a running back, but this will have to be a committee-type deal. Ride the hot hand that day and live with it.

Add Via The Draft?

Jonathan Brooks, the hometown kid from Texas, is a name everyone is high on. But if the Cowboys don’t draft him with their first-round pick, I doubt he is going to make it to them at pick no. 56.

In the entire history of the NFL Draft (1936-2023), the LATEST that we’ve seen the first RB drafted was Bishop Sankey (No. 54 in 2014).

He will likely be the first running back taken off the board, and someone in a better spot who can take a chance on him early will grab him.

Guys like Florida State’s Trey Benson could be another option for the team.

He was a 30-visit as well, does not have injury concerns, and is a consensus top-2 running back in the draft.

Benson is still my favorite running back in the draft.

Last year, he had 154 rushes for 990 yards, a 6.4 yards per carry average, and nine touchdowns.

He caught 13 balls for 144 yards with an 11.1 average yards per reception. He earned Second Team All-ACC.

Whether it is Brooks, Benson, or another one of the premier running back prospects, the Cowboys’ biggest task is making sure they get the right guy.

Regardless of who they draft, this will not be a fun year watching this backfield.

If I had to guess, Dowdle would be the projected starter, but that could change from now to when September rolls around.

If it took Pollard until the final game of the season to rush for over 1,000 yards behind an offensive line that was better than what they are going to have this year, wow.

All the backs combined might rush for over 1,000, but I expect most of them to sit around 500-600 yards and that is being nice.

Long way to go before we can make that call, but from the looks of it right now, in maybe the final year of Mike McCarthy and Dak Prescott, they are sure going to need to put things on their shoulders if they wanna hang around.

Jerry really said they would be going “all-in,” and they can’t even do that by signing their two best players to extensions to clear up cap space to make the moves needed.

This team might be in trouble by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, and until something changes my mind about that, I have no reason to think they can win enough games to make the playoffs in the NFC.

Shane Taylor

Staff Writer

Shane Taylor is a Dallas Cowboys fan from the Midwest. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and works at a Junior College in the Institutional Effectiveness department. Taylor has written for two publications in his lifetime. The first was as a Sports Reporter for Journal Star while in college. He also spent a year as a Regional News Reporter for Shaw Media. When he is not working or writing for Inside The Star, he enjoys bowling competitively. Feel free to connect with him on his social media outlets listed below!

Follow this author:

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

1 Comment
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments