The Cowboys did not draft a running back. That fact is still being digested in and around The Star. Heading into the weekend’s festivities, that sounded like a near impossibility, that the team’s weak crop of current running backs after the departure of star back Tony Pollard in free agency would all but force the Cowboys to go in for a rookie to help fill the void.
But, when given a chance to pick a running back with the 87th pick in the third round—MarShawn Lloyd from USC was the next player drafted, with Jaylen Wright and Bucky Irving leading a fourth-round run on backs—the Cowboys instead went with Notre Dame linebacker Marist Liufau. Linebacker was a need, no doubt, but running back appeared to be much more pressing.
Speaking with the Cowboys’ vice president of personnel Will McClay this week, David Moore of the Dallas Morning News sought some answers.
“If you try and force something, you might forgo another player at another position that can help your roster. The board was set,” McClay said.
Cowboys Draft Was Never Focused on Running Back
That’s not to say the Cowboys did not enter the draft with a running back on their minds. The player they’d most often been connected to was Jonathon Brooks, the Texas star who went to the Panthers with the 46th overall pick, well ahead of where Dallas might have drafted him. Trey Benson from Florida State was another possibility, a player who went on a 30 visit to Dallas, but who wound up going to Arizona with the second pick of the third round.
A run of backs picked in the fourth round, where the Cowboys did not have a pick thanks to the Trey Lance trade last year, meant the team would have to move on from the notion of drafting a running back.
“There were players that were there and there were runs that went on different positions. As those runs went, they took away from our board at certain positions,” McClay said.
“You look at the depth and the value of the players at the other positions plus that quote-unquote position of need and it didn’t fall to where we could have picked a back at any point in time based on where the board was. Of the right value.”
After addressing the offensive line in the first two rounds, drafting for need was never going to be the Cowboys’ approach.
“There were players that were graded at a certain level and we followed the board as opposed to forcing it for quote-unquote a need at running back,” McClay said.
Ezekiel Elliott Leading the RB Committee
Before the draft, rumors had already begin to flare up about the Cowboys’ potential interest in signing free-agent running back Ezekiel Elliott, the erstwhile former Cowboys star who spent last season in New England.
Elliott, of course, led the league in rushing as a Cowboys rookie, and again in his third season. He led the NFL in yards per game for his first three years, at 108.7 yards, 98.3 and 95.6. He scored 68 touchdowns in seven seasons. But he declined rapidly ahead of the Cowboys letting him walk in free agency last year.
Elliott played all 17 games for the Patriots and totaled 642 yards, logging a yards per carry average of 3.5. That’s the worst of his career, and consistent with a steady decline from 4.5 yards per carry in 2019, the last time he made the Pro Bowl, down to 3.8 in 2022, his final season in Dallas.
McClay said that Elliott will be just part of a Cowboys “committee” at the position.
“I think the running back position this day and age is not that old-school No. 1 guy as the lead back and the others fill in. It’s a group by committee,” he said
“What (Elliott will) add to that group, we’re excited about, as well as the other pieces with it and how we add that to the offense and use them for their skill sets in adding something to our group.”
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