Lists that rank the greatest players and coaches in the history of the NFL franchise. You could even go back all the way to the most famous running back in NFL history. On some level, this is simple. As camp begins to wrap up in Oxnard, the focus now shifts to Los Angeles for three important days of competition. That's more than most rookie backs at the NFL level made a year ago. It's going to naturally work out that way. SPORTSBOOK. 3 behind Elliott and Pollard. Sure, but that can go horribly wrong, too. The Cowboys don't have to make any decisions on the roster until next Tuesday, but it sounds like Jerry Jones already knows the plan for Michael Gallup. As the Cowboys prepare to go through offseason activities, the. Running Back Depth Starting to Surface - Dallas Cowboys Outside of maybe Cook's contract, did any of those deals age well? Saquon Barkley stats (2022): 1,312 rushing yards, 57 receptions, 338 receiving yards, 1,650 total yards, 10 TD. In Kansas City, Dick Vermeil's Chiefs signed Ravens backup Priest Holmes in free agency to serve as the starter and saw the former undrafted free agent turn into a first-team All-Pro for three straight seasons. There have been hints that an unhappy Barkley would sit without a long-term extension, one that cannot now be negotiated until after the season. One is the success rate of those first-round picks; whether you use the 2011 post-CBA rules or go back further, into the 1980s, they haven't been good bets in the first round relative to other positions. It isn't so much that the two-time NFL rushing champion is 27 years old as it is that Elliott has been in the league since 2016 and logged 88 games over six seasons. The name of the RB3 game is to show and prove in August for the right to play in September and beyond because, as Peete readily admits, an impact third back remains critical in keeping a pair of spry legs on the field at all times. video. The issue is that most running backs aren't good when you put them on the line -- they average 6.4 yards per target on throws at the line of scrimmage, while wideouts average 8.3 yards per target and tight ends generate 7.6. Visit ESPN to view the Dallas Cowboys team depth chart for the current season 5:52 PM on Jul 17, 2023 CDT. And naturally, it stands to reason he also benefits from playing in an offense with Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. Luckily, this past week in Denver allowed for some more clarity. In terms of starting work, it might only be the Buccaneers, who are in a difficult cap situation and like 2022 third-rounder Rachaad White. You can make a case that teams should be willing to consider moving on from even the best backs at the end of their rookie deals. With the release of Ezekiel Elliott, the Dallas Cowboys running back position is surrounded by quite a bit of intrigue and mystery heading into the 2023 season. Play Now . The timetable is yet to be officially determined but there's belief he can return at some point this season. Cook, Elliott and Hunt are 27. Julius Jones (American football) - Wikipedia Cowboys roster 2023: Running backs Tony Pollard, Deuce Vaughn lead the Backs who aren't drafted in the first round are at a huge disadvantage until they prove themselves. "When you utilize two guys quite a bit in the game at the same time, your third back has got to be heavily involved," said Peete. Before 2010, players drafted toward the top of the first round entered the league and became some of the highest-paid players at their respective positions. The two-time Pro Bowl quarterback is still working out with now-former Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott . The infamous Duane Thomas interviewed | PRO FOOTBALL DALY "He looks quicker to me in the first part of camp than he had at the end of last year. The timetable is yet to be officially determined but there's belief he can return at some point this season. More teams are incorporating analytics into their decision-making. At Mondays 3 p.m. deadline, Barkley tweeted, It is what it is, signaling that there would be no multi-year deal for him, same as Pollard, same as Josh Jacobs in Las Vegas. Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here. Instead, when he hit free agency this offseason, teams valued him as a solid element of a rotation and the Saints gave him a three-year, $12 million deal. You can understand why both sides are struggling to find common ground on a new deal. Cowboys Running Back | TikTok Why are there four veterans still available? Take the case of Todd Gurley, who was Offensive Player of the Year at age 23, third in that race at age 24, cut after his age-25 season and out of football after his age-26 campaign. Cowboys taking 'wait-and-see' approach behind Tony Pollard at running C.J. Tom - Tony Pollard is now the . (Unsurprisingly, those are both Derrick Henry seasons.). If the Colts do that with Jonathan Taylor, who is now eligible for an extension after a difficult campaign, it would be a major step and a real question about whether teams are going too far. Players aren't going to hold out en masse. Elliott has spent the offseason getting ready for another 17-game campaign. The magic number for star backs used to be 300. That's what the NFL calendar dictates time of the year. Dallas plays the Giants twice including the season opener at MetLife Stadium Sept. 10. Mike Shanahan's Denver teams produced huge numbers with a series of unheralded rookies, undrafted free agents and journeymen rotating through at running back. The franchise tag for backs in 2023 is $10.1 million, meaning that the Giants and Raiders can go year to year with Barkley and Jacobs over the next two seasons and pay them a total of $22.2 million over that time frame, or a little over $11 million per campaign. Patriots 'Reallocating' Attention, Money to RB Dalvin Cook? Create a league and customize league size, scoring and rules to play in the league you want to play in. While it was a given that Dallas would not sign Pollard to a long-term contract after he suffered a broken leg in last years playoff loss at San Francisco, New Yorks back-and-forth squabble with Saquon Barkley arguably the best player on the Giants roster went public for weeks. The reality is we have a soft spot for players who touch the football. Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs became the first running back duo to be selected in the top half of Round 1 since Fournette and Christian McCaffrey in 2017, a feat that happened far more often in the past. Let's use a simple (if imperfect) measure of what teams did in neutral situations on early downs. Dallas Cowboys Roster | ESPN There's also the question of what deserving to get paid means. Matt Breida proved to be a home run hitter as an undrafted free agent addition in 2017. Best team fits for 13 unsigned NFL veterans and trade candidates: We picked ideal landing spots, Zeke eyeing Eagles, Jets, Bengals, sources say, Which team should sign Zeke? The threat of being in that market is also squeezing backs on rosters. 1 pick under the old system was Sam Bradford, who took home $50 million in guaranteed money on his rookie deal, which was more than any other player -- rookie or otherwise -- in league history at the time. In 2019 under different circumstances Elliott still had two years remaining on his rookie deal the Cowboys tacked on a six-year, $90 million addition that made Zeke (at least for a time) the highest-paid back in the league. When you factor in the outsize value in landing a wide receiver, edge rusher or cornerback in the draft relative to what they make on veteran deals, the value in taking a running back in the first round simply isn't there. Projecting the carries split for Cowboys running backs in 2023 The former 2020 undrafted free agent from South Carolina sustained a hip injury that obliterated his 2021 campaign before it could begin. All-time Rushing Leader: Emmitt Smith 4,052 att, 17,162 yds, 153 TD . Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard is now the leader of the room, with the former Memphis star adjusting to his new role with aplomb. When his son, Kyle, took over as the offensive coordinator in Houston in 2008, the Texans immediately got solid production out of rookie third-round pick Steve Slaton. I dont mean to play the take out one play and a team or player only did this game, but aside from that 36-yard touchdown run, the Cowboys kept Barkley under wraps for the two games 24 carries for 84 yards. The most famous and successful back of the bunch, Hall of Famer Terrell Davis, was a sixth-round pick in 1995. That figure has nearly been cut in half, with those players replaced by middle-rounds selections. . (For more on this, CBS Sports' Joel Corry recently wrote at length about the stagnation of the top of the market.). Even if we limit the analysis to looking only at how each team's lead rusher performed, those rushers have generally been more efficient with the league shifting toward rotations. Even with his declined performance and injuries, Elliott still led the team with 231 of the 462 carries by Cowboys running backs in 2022. However, pro football is still a business, and the Cowboys will be eyeing his $16.7 million salary cap hit for elimination next offseason if he doesn't produce. Undrafted rookies Malik Davis (Florida) and Aaron Shampklin (Harvard) figure to challenge Dowdle, and at the very minimum provide depth on the practice squad after the 53-man cuts. Teams have had all offseason to shore up their running back rotation in free agency and with draft picks. Dallas Cowboys' Running Backs: Two-Headed Monster or One Emerging I've written about how the 2007 Patriots changed the NFL, and while the league already was throwing the ball more often before that fateful season, New England drew a line between the past and the future of football. The easiest way to do this would be some kind of statistical threshold, where a running back immediately becomes eligible for an extension if he puts up some round number (let's say 1,500 yards from scrimmage) in his first two seasons. The other issue is that backs haven't consistently been able to keep up those totals. Ask 10 people this question and you're likely to get 10 different answers. Three-and-a-half percentage points might not sound like a lot, but that's about two runs per game that have now become passes. The rise of the quarterback on a rookie deal, in particular, entirely changed the way teams built their rosters. The number of backs voted into the Hall of Fame over the past 25 years isn't far off from the number of offensive linemen, either. Defensive tackle? Not really worried about whats going to be going on after next season unless were going on tour for winning the Super Bowl.". Najee Harris, whom the Steelers drafted in Round 1 in 2021, will earn about $3.3 million per year over his first four seasons, and all of the $13 million he signed for was fully guaranteed. We've actually seen a bit of a pushback in efficiency as throwing rates have risen higher and higher, but six is still more than four. It's difficult to separate each back's ability to shoulder that workload versus their respective teams' desires to keep them fresh, but it's clear the league isn't using its top backs as it did before 2010. I'm not sure I can make a strong case that teams are giving up on those backs too quickly, either. Former NFL running back Marion Barber died of heatstroke, medical I understand. Skip Peete, the team's RB coach who is now on his second stint with the club, has such a vision in mind. It includes every starting running back from throughout Dallas Cowboys history, including current running backs and past ones. Which spot on the field is getting paid too much? Kareem Hunt wasn't re-signed by the Browns after his contract expired, while Ezekiel Elliott, Leonard Fournette and Dalvin Cook were released by their respective franchises to create salary cap space. With Tony Pollard in fold, what's next for Ezekiel Elliott, Cowboys? The Cowboys are weighing all options with Tyron Smith now injured. See more videos about Getting Back into Running, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Cowboys Don't Cry, Cowboys Fans Running into The Stadium, Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys, Cowboys Now. Its easy for Cowboys fans to view New York dismissively. Two years later, the offense thrived when undrafted free agent Arian Foster made the job his own and became arguably the league's best back between 2010 and 2013. However, there is plenty up for grabs behind the dynamic duo as three former undrafted free agents battle for potentially just one roster spot. 6.7M views. I certainly think the Rams regret giving Gurley an extension in 2018, as we'll discuss in a minute, but the tactic reared its head before Gurley's downswing and hasn't reflected how L.A. has used its backs since. NOW PLAYING . | Scouts pick sleepers Now, Pollard is the longest-tenured running back on the team, and it'll be a new . During his time in Philadelphia from 2019 to 2022, Miles Sanders averaged 5.4 yards per carry and 3.7 yards before first contact with a defender with Hurts on the field. If we take wide receiver as an example, though, we're not seeing the same sort of drop-off for players from that decade. With Kellen Moore keen on using two-back sets significantly this season, Elliott and Pollard could be on the field together often. Cowboys 2023 offseason position breakdown series: Running back Get the latest news. If anybody should know whom to target at running back, it's the San Francisco coach, right? Since then, just 12 have hit that mark over the ensuing 12 seasons, and there have been only two instances of a runner pulling it off over the past five campaigns. Their 2021 opponents went a combined 122-148-2 for a winning percentage of .452. There's no surprise at the top of the depth chart with Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard leading the way as a dual backfield full of potential. Just because the Cowboys arrived late to the party for cutting running backs out of the loop for big paydays doesnt mean they arent profiting from it now. (They averaged 4.09 yards per carry from 1980 to 2006.) Running Back Depth Starting to Surface. That has suddenly turned Dallas into one of the NFL's most dangerous offenses, one feeding of f a player who is arguably the league's best running back right now. Elliott was hampered by a torn PCL during the back end of the 2021 season, but still managed to rush for more than 1,000 yards (1,289 yards from scrimmage with 12 touchdowns) and, now healthy, is again putting his quickness and burst on display in camp. Barkley missed nearly all of the 2020 season and struggled mightily in 2021 after tearing his ACL. All-time Receiving Leader: Jason Witten 1,215 rec, 12,977 yds, 72 TD . OBJ? Published: Mar 21, 2023 at 02:33 PM Kevin Patra Around the NFL Writer The Dallas Cowboys have added to their backfield in the post- Ezekiel Elliott era. Barnwell's ideal fits for 12 available players, Where the Bills stand ahead of free agency's second wave, and what could be next, Cowboys release two-time rushing champ Zeke. Since the league went to that 2011 CBA, running backs have been the position most likely to have their fifth-year option declined. Callena Williams/Dallas Cowboys. Lead backs and rushing offenses on the whole have been more effective, at least in terms of yards per carry, by shifting away from the lead back model toward a rotation. video Rookie running camp Malik Davis shares his thoughts on his preseason performance vs the Chargers and it motivation as he looks to try and make the 53-man roster. Elliott recorded his fourth 1,000-yard season in six tries with 1,002 and 10 touchdowns on 237 carries. Different organizations value the impact of a top-end running back at varying levels, but is there anyone out there who believes you can't find a useful running back in the later rounds nowadays? 2023 Dallas Cowboys. 2023 Fantasy Football Draft Guide: Rankings, cheat sheets and analysis. 2023 Cowboys roster breakdown: Running backs - Blogging The Boys The Best Quarterbacks In The NFL Right Now. When I looked at the 16 backs who are already finished as starters from the 2010s, it's tough to find many who were playing well after leaving their initial teams. Let's go back to Kyle Shanahan, who has been able to build an effective rushing attack virtually everywhere he has gone. The only player from this group who left his first team and proceeded to make a Pro Bowl afterward was Murray, who made it with the Titans in 2016, dropped off the following season, then retired. Given the landscape and the paucity of openings, it's tough for them to land meaningful money. The only thing we know for sure . Tony Pollard Top Plays | 2022 Season. None of the four has signed elsewhere. Meanwhile, 27-year-old running backs are being portrayed as fossils hanging on to any hope of a meaningful NFL career for dear life. The idea of a quarterback being a significant portion of the designed run game simply wasn't a feasible idea in the pro game for most of the past 70 years. But don't count out rookies Malik Davis and Aaron Shampklin in this fight, though. Get your favorite live sports, stories and originals with ESPN+, Disney+ and Hulu. . Pollard's 6.2 yards per touch made him a dynamic weapon in both the passing game and the rushing attack. Give them a chance and NFL owners, blessed with TV riches other sports cant even contemplate, will find ways to cut costs. "I control what I can control," Elliott told reporters on June 2 during organized team activities. By then, the Shanahan family had moved on to Washington and begun to coax three straight 1,000-yard seasons out of sixth-round pick Alfred Morris. Kelly proceeded to win first-team All-Pro honors in each of the next three seasons and made it to seven consecutive Pro Bowls; he too became a Hall of Famer. No team has had a key running back suffer a significant injury in minicamp or during offseason workouts to open up a starting job. Do not duplicate in any form without permission of the Dallas Cowboys. The Rams instead paid Gurley $34.5 million for those two seasons before releasing him, which damaged their chances of winning a Super Bowl over that two-year run. Call 1-800-Gambler or visit www.1800gambler.net. I've never heard anyone argue that safeties or centers or gunners on special teams don't make enough money, even though they train just as hard and are also putting their bodies on the line. However, there is another preseason game on Friday and McGovern said he's expected to actually start at center. "I think he's got it back," said Peete. While . Trevon Diggs Defends . Vote below and help decide the greatest Cowboys RB of all time! Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. David Johnson wasn't able to stay healthy. The evidence provided from looking at data and history, like what we've seen here, strongly points toward not valuing all but the best running backs as being worth significant investments, with a first-round pick or with a large second contract. Those four aren't quite as impressive as their names might indicate. ESPN Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Now, with rookie first-rounder Anthony Richardson moving into the starting lineup for the Colts, nearly a quarter of the league will have a significant role for their quarterback as part of their rushing attack in 2023. This game might not count for most of the team, but it was the final chance for many young players to prove themselves. The Cowboys agreed to terms on a. If Cook or Elliott wanted to sign tomorrow for the minimum and just wanted to be in a training camp, they would have no trouble landing a job. Eric Moody makes the case for trading Christian McCaffrey if you have him on a fantasy football dynasty roster. While the guarantees were closer, Richardson's average annual salary was about half of what Bush had inked with the Saints five years earlier, even under a more lucrative salary cap. In 2021, the 49ers used a third-round pick on Trey Sermon, who fell out of favor almost immediately and was waived after one season.