If you don’t learn from the past you are doomed to repeat it.
The Dallas Cowboys may not be able to repeat last year’s ability to run the ball at will as they have undervalued the significance of a Pro-Bowl running back—a mistake they’ve made before.
They spent the off-season with their No. 1 priority of finding someone able to replace DeMarco Murray’s production at a lower cap hit. So far they aren’t convinced they’ve plugged the hole.
Right now Joseph Randle is listed as the starter on depth chart, but has not been formally named the guy. Randle has flashed talent in limited opportunities but lacks dependability in pass protection and has no proven NFL level track record in the role of an every-down back. The other potential starter and primary ball carrier is Darren McFadden. The 28-year-old is talented, but he has been oft-injured and ineffectual at times during his tenure in Oakland.
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The Cowboys were so uncertain about the position they acquired Christine Michael from Seattle on Sunday. Michael was brought in as insurance for Randle’s off-field immaturity and McFadden’s injury history. He’s talented but hasn’t had any sustained success in the NFL and was moved aside in favour of former Bill Fred Jackson. You have to question why a great talent-evaluating team like the Seattle Seahawks and GM Jon Schneider elected to get rid of a player they knew very well.
So now the ‘Boys have a quartet of running backs—Randle, McFadden, Michael and Lance Dunbar—who collectively put up the following stats in 2014:
269 rushing attempts, 1,151 yards, 4.3 yards/attempt, 8 TDs
Compare that to Murray’s stat line:
392 rushing attempts, 1,845 yards, 4.7 yards/attempt, 13 TDs
You could imagine that running behind the NFL’s best offensive line would give the Cowboys’ committee a boost, but what can’t be quantified is the chemistry that Murray had with his offensive line. The zone-blocking scheme Dallas employs requires a level of familiarity and single-mindedness that doesn’t develop over night. That chemistry will be infinitely harder to garner rotating three ball carriers.
Another trait Murray has over his potential replacements is great vision. Offensive lines and running backs have to see plays with the same eyes. Above his ability to hit the hole hard or run through contact, Murray excelled in Dallas because he set up his blocks and found creases effectively. As dominant as Dallas’s line has been, the running back does have a role in making the offensive line’s life easier not just vice versa.
The loss of Murray may have a cascading affect on the entire offence. In 2014 Dallas was tops in the league in first-down runs, averaging almost five yards a carry. That early-down success helps put Tony Romo in second-and-medium, a dual-threat down, and lessens the pressure to force the ball into areas he shouldn’t—which has been his Achilles heel.
We’ve seen this movie before. The team Jerry Jones has constructed is following the blueprint Jimmy Johnson put in place to bring the Cowboys back-to-back Super bowl rings in the early ’90s. Back then they put together a dominant offensive line and surrounded them with a trio of elite play-makers at the QB, RB and WR positions in Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin.
But their mistake was under-valuing the role of the running back in the team’s success, and in the summer of 1993 they refused to re-negotiate Smith’s contract and watched as the NFL All Pro held out to start the season. The Cowboys drafted Derrick Lassic and plugged him in as the starter, but the team then started the season 0-2 with losses to Washington and Buffalo.
Jerry Jones finally conceded and made the deal, signing Smith to a five-year, $12-million contract that made him the highest-paid running back in the league.
The Cowboys won the Super Bowl that year, and Smith went on to become the all-time leading rusher in NFL history. Lassic bounced around the NFL as a supplemental player before being a training-camp cut of the Toronto Argos in 1998.
This is the same gamble they are making now, except Jones can’t press control-alt-delete and get a mulligan with Murray. Instead he will see a motivated Murray twice a year playing for the Cowboys’ toughest opposition for the division crown. This decision could haunt the Cowboys on multiple levels.
It is possible they might strike gold with a depth running back as they did with Murray. However, with a team ready to compete for a championship it’s a big risk to take. With running backs you never really know what you have until they’re gone.
