There is arguably no team in the NFL more connected to the running back position than the Dallas Cowboys.
Obviously other squads have had elite runners and there are great ball-carriers in today’s game that play for teams who do not operate out of The Star in Frisco. But the Cowboys are the team with an All-Time Leading Rusher banner hanging inside of their stadium and are also the team who drafted a running back fourth overall and gave that running back a second contract all over the last seven years.
But times change. This offseason the Cowboys released Ezekiel Elliott, while placing the franchise tag on Tony Pollard for what it is worth, signaling even a moderate change in disposition. Despite this being the case there is no shortage of draft analysis to connect them to University of Texas running back Bijan Robinson or Alabama’s Jahmyr Gibbs.
Come Thursday night when the 2023 NFL Draft starts both Robinson and Gibbs (to a lesser degree) are expected to hear their names called. Will either celebrate as the Dallas Cowboys star flashes next to their name on televisions all over the world? That remains to be seen.
With this subject being at the forefront of Dallas Cowboys draft discussions team EVP Stephen Jones was asked on Monday during the group’s pre-draft press conference if they have changed their minds (the question actually included the word appetite!) on how they feel about running backs in the first round specifically. Here is his answer as transcribed by Mark Lane:
Well, I think you have to pay attention to the history of the running back and what happens. Obviously we made a conscious decision to take Zeke [Elliott]. I think he was a big part of our success there when we got Dak and Zeke in there together, what he brought to the table. At the same time, there’s very few Emmitt Smiths that play at a high level, a productive level for 10 years. What I would say to you is if you’re picking in the top-10, call it top-12, top-15, wherever you want to make the cutoff, you really are thinking, ‘Boy, we have to, like to think, have to have a second contract out of that deal.’
And, so, does it affect you when you’re thinking about a running back when you’re up that high? Yes. As you start to really look at as you move down the draft, you’d like to hope you’re going to have success if that player is going to be a second round, second contract. But it’s in my opinion, one opinion, not as necessary that you have to get to that second contract. If you happen to see a back there at the bottom of the first that’s rare and unique and he falls because he’s a running back, then I would have to think that we would consider it, especially if we thought he should have been picked in the top half of the draft. Maybe because he is a running back he’s falling a little bit.
And obviously a lot of these backs can come into the NFL and play right away and play at a high level right away. Zeke proved it. Emmitt. We’ve been fortunate to have backs like that, but you can also get good running backs as a lot of teams have shown. You can get them in the second, third, fourth round as well. I think every situation is unique but I do think you have to pay attention to what the history and how all of these backs have progressed in our league and how many play at a certain level for five years, how many play for seven. When does it really start, that curve start to roll over on you, if you will in terms of production?
It is interesting that Stephen would bring up the idea of a second contract being an indicator of success. Obviously a player earning a second deal from a team would imply that they did something noteworthy in order to do so, but players can be incredible on the life of their rookie contracts and justify a pick off of that time alone. Shocker here, it is a subjective thing.
Obviously it is difficult to not assume (unless that’s what the Cowboys WANT us to do...) that the team would only consider drafting a running back if the player in question could likely earn/see a second deal with the team. To be fair to the point Ezekiel Elliott did get a second contract with the Cowboys, but he was also wildly productive for the team while on his rookie deal. In fact he was more productive while on that first deal.
We will see how this goes.
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