Dallas Cowboys pre-training camp position breakdown series, looking at the backfield
Over the last decade or so a mantra that “running backs don’t matter” has sprung up in circles of people who talk about football and the NFL. It is not hard to understand why. Year in and year out we see new runners find success with their new teams and they are generally later-round draft picks. Committees comprise backfields all over the league. The days of a tried and true bellcow leading the way are long in the rearview mirror for most teams.
That being said, running backs matter. At least the running game matters. You have to be able to have success on the ground and salt the game away at times. Even in a world where offenses explode regularly, this is still football and there is still a high level of value in being able to dominate on the ground. The Cowboys have learned that from their playoff opponents over the last few years.
In our current moment, though, the same Cowboys appear either ready and willing to test the idea that the position does not matter at all or believe that they have found the one thing that matters most to them in the return of a familiar face.
This is our discussion on the team’s backfield (so we can include Hunter Luepke) ahead of training camp. You can visit our previous position groups if you’d like:
Let’s begin.
Ezekiel Elliott
It is totally possible that the Cowboys identified Ezekiel Elliott as an option to bring in throughout the course of free agency after price points from other players did not strike their fancy. Maybe you believe that.
I’m far from a conspiracy theorist, but that the team so willingly let Tony Pollard leave to the Tennessee Titans and did not exactly jump at an opportunity to sign anyone else, coupled with the fact that they discussed Zeke several times in the lead up to the NFL draft where they did not draft a running back suggests that the code red (so to speak) was ordered in the early days of formulating the offseason plan. Zeke was always likely returning to The Star.
This is a fine move to be clear. Elliott is still a player who is capable of helping an NFL team. But it seems rather unlikely that he can be the peak/prime version of himself that led to people buying jerseys they were so excited to wear again with pride (before he switched jersey numbers from 21 to 15, another predictable thing).
Zeke’s year abroad with the New England Patriots went about how everybody thought it would after Dallas released him last offseason. He was fine and generally dependable but not explosive at all. Optimists have suggested that he “finished the season strong” but there is nothing to really suggest that.
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Before we go forward here it is important to state that it is my personal opinion that Elliott will absorb the lion’s share of carries for the Cowboys. Why? With no offense to anyone else on the roster… look at everyone else on the roster.
While this was two years ago, recall that the 2022 version of Tony Pollard was the best and most explosive one that we ever saw in a Cowboys uniform. Even still, the team found a way to give Elliott over 200 carries (231 to be precise). If that version of Pollard couldn’t push Zeke to the sidelines then who is the player who can? Assuming one exists they are not currently on this team.
Back to the subject at hand, take note of Elliott’s rushing yards after contact per rush (YAC/attempt). He reached 2.0 on just two instances with New England.
It is not a secret or some deep level of analysis to say that with time Zeke (like anyone would) has become more prone to contact and tackling stopping him in his tracks. Here are the amount of times he reached 2.0 YAC/attempt throughout each season of his career starting in 2018 (as far back as PFT’s data on the metric goes):
- 2018: 6
- 2019: 8
- 2020: 10
- 2021: 3
- 2022: 6
- 2023: 2
This would all be fine if Elliott were exclusively going to be some sort of goal line option or glorified fullback like Mike Tolbert, but it seems very likely he will be doing more than that this year.
He is an incredibly tough player who is close to 10,000 career rushing yards (sitting on 8,904 at the moment) and it would be very cool to see him get it, but Father Time is undefeated and it is not hard to see the drop off that took place a while back now. It is certainly possible in a world of infinite possibilities that he could find the fountain of youth and turn in a season worth celebrating (beyond goal line touchdowns like he had in 2022) that contributes to the team in a positive way. He can certainly be counted on giving his all in the name of that happening, but odds are against it.
Hunter Luepke
We mentioned up top that we were calling this the backfield so that we could include Hunter Luepke and he is placed here because he is the starting fullback.
Many of us thought that Luepke would work on the goal line in 2023 the way that Elliott did in 2022, but his rookie season saw him carry the ball only six times in four different games so that did not exactly happen (he reached 2.0 YAC/attempt in three games).
Luepke was a versatile player in college and we have yet to see the Cowboys really approach that level of creativity with him; however, there are thankfully a bevy of options as far as offensive tools are concerned and it is difficult to carve out touches for someone like him. Perhaps year two will feature some more work, but with Elliott back in the fold it seems unlikely. He will certainly be an important part of clearing the paths in front of him, though.
Rico Dowdle
In case you are curious, Rico Dowdle reached 2.0 YAC/attempt 7 times in 2023. Anyway!
Dallas brought Dowdle back for the 2024 season and for about half of an hour it seemed like he was going to be their primary option in the run game. Then Zeke came back.
You could certainly do worse than having a secondary/complementary option like Dowdle in the fold. Last year gave us all a legitimate opportunity to finally see what he was made of and even though it was so-so (89 carries, 361 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns) it felt like justification to those who had believed for a couple of years.
The reality here is that even though he re-signed with the team this offseason so it is now a new contract, Dowdle is entering year five with the Cowboys. That it hasn’t happened (so to speak) by now for him suggests that it may not at all. And as mentioned in discussing Elliott, if there truly is a plan to give a non-Zeke person serious work, do we really believe that it will be Rico Dowdle?
Perhaps!
We will be dropping videos breaking down position groups on the Dallas Cowboys roster every Tuesday and Thursday for the next few weeks as we get closer and closer to training camp. Make sure to subscribe to the Blogging The Boys YouTube Channel (which you can do right here) so you do not miss any of them.
Deuce Vaughn
Needless to say Deuce Vaughn’s rookie season did not justify the hype. To be fair, the hype was hardly his fault. That the Cowboys drafted him given his Dad’s relationship to the team and that his father was the one who was able to make the call was the kind of story that movies are made of. Nobody should be faulted for being made happy by a warm and joyous story.
Football is rarely warm though, and the 2023 season taught us that with regards to Vaughn. Active for only seven games last year, it seems like he has a lot of work to do in order to fully evolve into the type of player that Kansas State fans saw terrorize the Crimson Tide.
Perhaps the Cowboys are working on that, though. That is the optimistic way of looking at reports that Vaughn has been working with the receivers and will potentially see work out of the slot.
“It was one of those things that we had kind of talked about at the end of the season last year. Talking with Schotty… just a little bit about getting with that slot. Getting with a Brandin Cooks. Getting with a guy that plays out there. And just learning a little bit more about it. Because it’s one of the things I did in college and love to do. Just adds another value. Getting into this OTA season it’s perfect to go out here and learn with these guys and be on the field with Dak. Understand what he’s thinking. Understand what Coop’s thinking. Understand what these guys are doing.”
The negative spin on this is that the team has already determined that he cannot help them on the ground and they are looking for any sort of way to utilize him. Even that carries an air of positivity with it in the idea that the Cowboys still value Vaughn, but we needn’t get carried away with any one idea there.
Royce Freeman, Snoop Conner and Nathaniel Peat
This offseason has also seen the Cowboys sign Royce Freeman, but we have no real idea yet what he offers this team or what his role is going to look like if he ultimately has one (he reached 2.0 YAC/attempt on three occasions last year just to keep our theme going).
How many touches can be expected from this team’s RB3 assuming that Elliott and Dowdle earn the top two roles? Perhaps Freeman can earn that second spot himself, that is something the days of Oxnard will go a long way towards determining.
Snoop Conner and Nathaniel Peat will be names that we see a lot of throughout the preseason but if Freeman does manage to earn a place on the roster then we are really running out of room for another back on the roster. This group is weirdly settled but with some particularly specific competition that could churn out some slightly different names than we expect.
Here’s to figuring out the room in the next few months.