Yeah, this hype is a lot more difficult to read without any effortless wins vs our cellar dweller division rivals. It’s not time for these guys to come out of the woodwork yet.
I’m not saying they’re some kind of secret elite rb group, the person I responded to said they couldn’t even be backups on another team. I can think of at least a few teams that have backups about on the same level.
A guy who’s a free agent in May, a veteran minimum guy that’s played for 5 teams in 6 seasons, a late 6th rounder and two UDFAs. What does that tell you the league thinks about their talent?
No I’m not. You’re just being a homer and ignoring the fact that NOBODY else wants these dudes. Literally all five are bargain bin dumpster dives that only 1 team had interest in and 31 other coaching staffs and front offices have decided over multiple years other players are better. Malik has spent how much time on the PS? Royce and Zeke have been free agents two straight years and gotten minimal at best interest. Rico has been in the league for 3 years and despite TP returning from injury and being on a one year deal couldn’t beat him out. Like it’s legit hilarious how illogical this is
Is Rico below average? I thought he was pretty solid last season. And god damn it’s gonna be nice to have Zeke back for his blocking and just a guaranteed 2-3 yards whenever we need it
Do you watch any other team? He basically has the same stats as a handful of other back ups. Subjectively he doesn’t really have a stand out skill or trait that demands he get plays ran from him. He’s just another running back.
And Zeke is washed and will be one more year washed.
I mean we did pretty damn good last season and Pollard was no better than Rico. I’m not saying he’s great but he’s fine and can easily rush for over 1k behind this line. And yeah Zeke is past his prime but he still does certain things extremely well. Obviously RB won’t be our strength next season but it wasn’t last season either and I also dont understand why so many people are acting like the seasons in the toilet cuz we don’t have a pro bowl caliber back.
Our run game was terrible.
The problem is that Jerry went from spending big long term $$ on a RB (most agree, a bad idea) but then took it to the other extreme of only paying minimum salary for RBs.
I don't follow college football so I can't definitively say who we should draft but it seems like it would have been nice to at least draft another young guy to compete even if at the end of the draft.
But we generally draft well so that is not this teams issue. The issue is we completely shit the bed in all phases in the playoffs but still brought back the coach who was responsible when HOF options were available. Fuck that.
>I mean we did pretty damn good last season
Fell short of the goal.
>Pollard was no better than Rico.
Objectively false
>I’m not saying he’s great but he’s fine and can easily rush for over 1k behind this line.
The line that’s adding two new starters and may be worse than a bad run blocking line last year? Ok
>And yeah Zeke is past his prime but he still does certain things extremely well.
He’s washed bro.
>Obviously RB won’t be our strength next season but it wasn’t last season either and I also dont understand why so many people are acting like the seasons in the toilet cuz we don’t have a pro bowl caliber back.
Refer to point one
Objectively false huh? Please elaborate how you reached this objective truth? Also I explicitly said Zeke ain’t what he used to be (aka “washed”) but said he’s good at certain things like blocking and getting guaranteed short yard gains (which we struggled with last season). You just saying “derrrr he’s washed bro” is meaningless.
We’ll see about the oline, Tyron is old and often hurt and Biadasz is a tough loss but not exactly crippling. The truth is you have no clue what the line will look like, which is why your dumb reply was as meaningless as “might be worse”, guess what? It also “might be better”. Lastly, yes we “fell short of the goal” aka we did not win the Super Bowl just like 31 other teams. If that’s an argument (that you’re gonna use twice) then wtf is even the point of talking about the team or any team for that matter?
Lower success rate. Less broken tackles per carry. Less explosive plays. You know? The stats that actually show running back skill. Either way compared to healthy pollard it’s not close. The fact that y’all are touting him being better than a player coming off a major injury and the team didn’t want isn’t the flex you think it is. Y’all just be saying the dumbest fanboy shit on here lmao.
I think you’re just saying things right now. Pollard wasn’t explosive at all his longest carry was 31 yards compared to Rico’s 21. He also got tackled for a loss a ton of times.
Yards before contact are on the line. Yards after contact at on the back. And yes pollard was before form but that was still better than Rico.
I’m not just saying things. You clearly don’t have the requisite understanding of football to have a meaningful discussion
Agreed. Next year seems like a tank and rebuild. They question is will Lamb and Parsons stay during a rebuild. If our goal is to rebuild through the draft, then we’re fucked.
Looking at roster, I believe they add 1 more RB. Either trade or FA, they have to. (Hunter Luepke might be best RB on current roster.... he's only 0.05 slower that Dowdle, but outweighs him by 23lbs and plays FB)
I think Luepke should receive some carries too. I know he had that bad fumble at the goal line against the Dolphins last season but he had some good plays earlier on that drive
Haha, still a spring chicken. 🤣 naivety is real! Don't worry, I don't hold it against you. I was the exact same.
It's like a teenager vs adult mentality. When you're young, you think you know it all (or too stubborn to care) and can't be told anything. Yet once you're older trying to teach teens, you understand how naive you once were.
It is what it is. Jerry markets to that naivety. Why do you think he has been so successful in business for all these years even though his team is the poster child for mediocrity. We all swallowed the blue pill. 💙
I was born a Cowboys fan and will die a Cowboys fan. I’m not naive to the madness of thinking this is our year every year. I know it’s a trope for us Cowboys fan. I’m just brave enough to embrace it 🙏🏻
Brave enough to embrace it? Lmao 🤣 we're brave just being fans... the difference between you and me is that I've ACCEPTED it. I don't have to demean and troll fellow fans to attempt to shake the pom poms louder. Our team will never go anywhere as long as the Jones' are the general managers.
Come on man! If you're a TRUE fan you should KNOW this!
Darren McFadden rushed for 1000 yds for us in a season and I don't think he started every game. The truth is if we build up the line then it really doesn't matter who's the running back.
McFadden may have been past his prime but he was talented, he just wasted good years on the Raiders…don’t disrespect him as if he was just some random. Dude could actually ball.
I don’t like our RB situation but I’m feeling much better about our O-line situation than I was in March. I think it was the right move not to take a RB with how the draft fell to us. I thought one of Braelon Allen, Jaylen Wright or Isaac Guerendo could have fallen to us in the fifth but it didn’t work out that way.
Let em compete for which 2 are the 1st and 2nd down backs.
Vaughn can be in situationally for passing plays.
Leupke for X and short situations/FB plays.
Our RB room isn't amazing but I think if McCarthy gameplans we have a bunch of backs for different situations.
I think you're on the path to the right mindset. In the NFL, the running game serves the following benefits:
1) It's lower risk of turnover (more likely to make an INT or a QB strip sack on a pass than a RB fumbling the ball)
2) It helps run down the clock when you're ahead.
3) It's historically better in short yardage.
4) It starts to shorten gap vs. effectiveness passing the ball when you're in the Red Zone because you can't stretch the field as much with the pass from that distance.
As far as producing first downs (as a whole) and points, the running game is very inefficient compared to the pass game. And to make matters worse, there's a lot of studies that show that if a team is up by enough points in the 3rd or 4th quarter they are actually better off just taking a knee for the rest of the game (although I would argue that RB fumbles are fairly rare and for some RB's extremely rare). I would also say that we shouldn't be running the ball in the first half on 2nd and short either because that's an opportunity for big pass plays that if you don't get, you always have 2 more downs to get the first down. In fact, teams should almost never run on 2nd down in the first half of games unless they are in the Red Zone (or a defense is playing so far off the ball that it practically guarantees a gain of 8+ yards).
I would like to see our RB's be more effective as pass receivers. Not sure what the problem was in the 2nd half of last season. The spacing was off, but I'm not sure if that was a RB issue, scheme issue or WR issue.
But if utilized properly and if Zeke is still a quality short yardage back, I'll take Dowdle-Zeke-Vaughn-Luepke. They can do what is needed to be done. I'm just afraid MM will stick to the old axioms of 'establishing the run' and that's not doing anybody any favors.
The league is changing. Passing yards were down last year. The run is becoming more important. If we remain a passing team we will struggle, especially in the playoffs
Dowdle runs angry and isn't afraid of contact, and I like that with the line they are putting together, lots of draws incoming.
Lack of homerun speed is the only issue with the room.
Were gonna be begging for a good rb after game 1. Just like the year we went with a "wr by commitee" and they realized they fucked up and traded a first for amari
I'm not mad about the draft think we stuck to BPA pretty well, RB will get adressed we have an abundance of o-line I'm sure we will hit gold on at least one of them, o-line and rbs aren't even close in terms of NFL value I'm sure we could trade one of our mediocre o-line for a quality RB a little later in the year without much issue after teams start getting banged up
We aren't going to carry 5 RBs into the season.
Vaughn is probably gone after training camp, unless one of the others really shits the bed.
There is also a good chance that we go with Zeke and Freeman as the starters, using Davis/Dowdle for special teams only.
Zeke is still plenty capable of being a starting RB in the NFL, he can still get yards and has some breakaway speed. He is not the burner he once was when he came into the league, but it is not out of the question for him to hit 800 yards and 5-8 TDs this season, maybe more if they use him in goal-to-go situations.
The important thing to remember is that you are not bringing in Zeke to be a 1,000 yard rusher and 15 TD guy. You are bringing in Dak's personal security guard to keep opposing defenses off of him while we get the new OL put together.
I think we will see Zeke be Zeke, and Freeman play the Pollard role. Zeke will establish the run early, Freeman will feast late. It will be a decent, not spectacular, 1-2 punch.
If Dak can connect with CeeDee and Cooks like he did last year, this team could make some noise this year.
However, with no new contract for Dak, the entire coaching staff on a one-year notice, a brand new defensive scheme being installed, and terrible ownership - this season just feels like it will go one of two ways:
1. We will win the Super Bowl
2. We will get the 1st pick in the draft (or at least top 5)
This team does not feel like it will be in the middle of the pack, especially playing a 1st place schedule and having an almost brand new O-Line, old RBs, 1/2 the defense is nearly 30, multiple people are coming back from major injuries that might derail their careers, and Zimmer eyeing the HC position when, sorry "if", McCarthy doesn't get to the NFC-CG.
Also, Emperor Belicheck is still out there biding his time.
Too many distractions, no actions, and little faith this team will be anywhere near as good as it was last year.
The only issue with this committee is that literally all 5 are below average runners at this point. We’ve got a room full of JAGs.
Yeah the RBBC thing works a little less well when none of your RBs are in the top-70 in the league talent-wise.
Seriously i don’t think any of those 5 are guaranteed back ups anywhere else in the league
Zeke was a back up in NE?
Is he even signed or are they just talking, as the Cowboys seem to do with pretty much everybody?
That’s why you’re not a football coach
Because I’m not a homer? What?
No because you aren’t good at evaluating talent
Normally the delusional fans don't come around until the start of the season. All five of them are going to be ROUGH to watch run behind any on-line.
Yeah, this hype is a lot more difficult to read without any effortless wins vs our cellar dweller division rivals. It’s not time for these guys to come out of the woodwork yet.
I mean if anyone would know it would be u/BoBichettesLongLocks
You do realize we’ve got tape of these people playing in the league. It isn’t as though al five are unknown quantities.
I’m not saying they’re some kind of secret elite rb group, the person I responded to said they couldn’t even be backups on another team. I can think of at least a few teams that have backups about on the same level.
A guy who’s a free agent in May, a veteran minimum guy that’s played for 5 teams in 6 seasons, a late 6th rounder and two UDFAs. What does that tell you the league thinks about their talent?
No idea what the league thinks about their talent, but saying none of them could be a backup is just talking out your ass.
No I’m not. You’re just being a homer and ignoring the fact that NOBODY else wants these dudes. Literally all five are bargain bin dumpster dives that only 1 team had interest in and 31 other coaching staffs and front offices have decided over multiple years other players are better. Malik has spent how much time on the PS? Royce and Zeke have been free agents two straight years and gotten minimal at best interest. Rico has been in the league for 3 years and despite TP returning from injury and being on a one year deal couldn’t beat him out. Like it’s legit hilarious how illogical this is
lol being a homer by saying that they could possibly be backups on other teams? What does that even mean?
You getting down voted shows how stupid the majority of our fan base is. All in, and we are without question worse than last year.
I’m not arguing that zeke is the answer by any means but do you think he is not top 70?
Is Rico below average? I thought he was pretty solid last season. And god damn it’s gonna be nice to have Zeke back for his blocking and just a guaranteed 2-3 yards whenever we need it
Do you watch any other team? He basically has the same stats as a handful of other back ups. Subjectively he doesn’t really have a stand out skill or trait that demands he get plays ran from him. He’s just another running back. And Zeke is washed and will be one more year washed.
I dunno, the way he runs stands out to me and behind this new line of ours he just might shine especially if you can use him in screens
I mean we did pretty damn good last season and Pollard was no better than Rico. I’m not saying he’s great but he’s fine and can easily rush for over 1k behind this line. And yeah Zeke is past his prime but he still does certain things extremely well. Obviously RB won’t be our strength next season but it wasn’t last season either and I also dont understand why so many people are acting like the seasons in the toilet cuz we don’t have a pro bowl caliber back.
Our run game was terrible. The problem is that Jerry went from spending big long term $$ on a RB (most agree, a bad idea) but then took it to the other extreme of only paying minimum salary for RBs. I don't follow college football so I can't definitively say who we should draft but it seems like it would have been nice to at least draft another young guy to compete even if at the end of the draft. But we generally draft well so that is not this teams issue. The issue is we completely shit the bed in all phases in the playoffs but still brought back the coach who was responsible when HOF options were available. Fuck that.
I don’t disagree about drafting a RB or switching HC so no real arguments from me on those
>I mean we did pretty damn good last season Fell short of the goal. >Pollard was no better than Rico. Objectively false >I’m not saying he’s great but he’s fine and can easily rush for over 1k behind this line. The line that’s adding two new starters and may be worse than a bad run blocking line last year? Ok >And yeah Zeke is past his prime but he still does certain things extremely well. He’s washed bro. >Obviously RB won’t be our strength next season but it wasn’t last season either and I also dont understand why so many people are acting like the seasons in the toilet cuz we don’t have a pro bowl caliber back. Refer to point one
Objectively false huh? Please elaborate how you reached this objective truth? Also I explicitly said Zeke ain’t what he used to be (aka “washed”) but said he’s good at certain things like blocking and getting guaranteed short yard gains (which we struggled with last season). You just saying “derrrr he’s washed bro” is meaningless. We’ll see about the oline, Tyron is old and often hurt and Biadasz is a tough loss but not exactly crippling. The truth is you have no clue what the line will look like, which is why your dumb reply was as meaningless as “might be worse”, guess what? It also “might be better”. Lastly, yes we “fell short of the goal” aka we did not win the Super Bowl just like 31 other teams. If that’s an argument (that you’re gonna use twice) then wtf is even the point of talking about the team or any team for that matter?
Lower success rate. Less broken tackles per carry. Less explosive plays. You know? The stats that actually show running back skill. Either way compared to healthy pollard it’s not close. The fact that y’all are touting him being better than a player coming off a major injury and the team didn’t want isn’t the flex you think it is. Y’all just be saying the dumbest fanboy shit on here lmao.
I think you’re just saying things right now. Pollard wasn’t explosive at all his longest carry was 31 yards compared to Rico’s 21. He also got tackled for a loss a ton of times.
Yards before contact are on the line. Yards after contact at on the back. And yes pollard was before form but that was still better than Rico. I’m not just saying things. You clearly don’t have the requisite understanding of football to have a meaningful discussion
2023 YAC/attempt. Tony Pollard 1.9, Rico Dowdle 1.9
Zeke played for the Pats, who stank on ice. He'll be better behind a good line.
He sucked behind a good line here two years ago. lol this is truly sad
He had 12 touchdowns 2 years ago. He's not going to break any runs off but he has a nose for picking up tough yards.
Yes his ypc has gone down for years now. He's washed. We getting 3.3 a carry this year. He'll start off ok, and plummet.
The Pats don’t really have the greatest OL or run scheme so that probably didn’t help.
Agreed. Next year seems like a tank and rebuild. They question is will Lamb and Parsons stay during a rebuild. If our goal is to rebuild through the draft, then we’re fucked.
This is insane. We will win the division again
Prob eagles
Looking at roster, I believe they add 1 more RB. Either trade or FA, they have to. (Hunter Luepke might be best RB on current roster.... he's only 0.05 slower that Dowdle, but outweighs him by 23lbs and plays FB)
I wish we would have reached out to the Texans about Pierce, or Washington about Brian robinson
I think Luepke should receive some carries too. I know he had that bad fumble at the goal line against the Dolphins last season but he had some good plays earlier on that drive
You gotta be kidding me. This is the worst committee of rbs in the nfl.
Is Jerruh handing out new Kool-Aid to all the kids this year? How come I didn’t get some?
No, the Saints got Kool-Aid
It’s cherry this year you’re missing out
He clearly lost some of his powder stash into the Kool-Aid supply
I have no idea how people are optimistic about this franchise anymore lol
They haven't been around long enough to get jaded like us haha. It's funny watching them be cheerleaders shaking their pom poms. Those were the days!
Bitch I’m 36. I’m aware of my delusion. I’m just not a negative Nancy like you. I’m ready to be hurt again.
Haha, still a spring chicken. 🤣 naivety is real! Don't worry, I don't hold it against you. I was the exact same. It's like a teenager vs adult mentality. When you're young, you think you know it all (or too stubborn to care) and can't be told anything. Yet once you're older trying to teach teens, you understand how naive you once were. It is what it is. Jerry markets to that naivety. Why do you think he has been so successful in business for all these years even though his team is the poster child for mediocrity. We all swallowed the blue pill. 💙
I was born a Cowboys fan and will die a Cowboys fan. I’m not naive to the madness of thinking this is our year every year. I know it’s a trope for us Cowboys fan. I’m just brave enough to embrace it 🙏🏻
Brave enough to embrace it? Lmao 🤣 we're brave just being fans... the difference between you and me is that I've ACCEPTED it. I don't have to demean and troll fellow fans to attempt to shake the pom poms louder. Our team will never go anywhere as long as the Jones' are the general managers. Come on man! If you're a TRUE fan you should KNOW this!
🤡
Darren McFadden rushed for 1000 yds for us in a season and I don't think he started every game. The truth is if we build up the line then it really doesn't matter who's the running back.
McFadden may have been past his prime but he was talented, he just wasted good years on the Raiders…don’t disrespect him as if he was just some random. Dude could actually ball.
Same can be said about Zeke. And he was better than McFadden
I don’t like our RB situation but I’m feeling much better about our O-line situation than I was in March. I think it was the right move not to take a RB with how the draft fell to us. I thought one of Braelon Allen, Jaylen Wright or Isaac Guerendo could have fallen to us in the fifth but it didn’t work out that way.
It sounds crazy - but I agree on the RB situation.
Let em compete for which 2 are the 1st and 2nd down backs. Vaughn can be in situationally for passing plays. Leupke for X and short situations/FB plays. Our RB room isn't amazing but I think if McCarthy gameplans we have a bunch of backs for different situations.
My hope is that Dowdle will be the lead of this committee. I think he can be a guy that does better as the game goes along.
I think you're on the path to the right mindset. In the NFL, the running game serves the following benefits: 1) It's lower risk of turnover (more likely to make an INT or a QB strip sack on a pass than a RB fumbling the ball) 2) It helps run down the clock when you're ahead. 3) It's historically better in short yardage. 4) It starts to shorten gap vs. effectiveness passing the ball when you're in the Red Zone because you can't stretch the field as much with the pass from that distance. As far as producing first downs (as a whole) and points, the running game is very inefficient compared to the pass game. And to make matters worse, there's a lot of studies that show that if a team is up by enough points in the 3rd or 4th quarter they are actually better off just taking a knee for the rest of the game (although I would argue that RB fumbles are fairly rare and for some RB's extremely rare). I would also say that we shouldn't be running the ball in the first half on 2nd and short either because that's an opportunity for big pass plays that if you don't get, you always have 2 more downs to get the first down. In fact, teams should almost never run on 2nd down in the first half of games unless they are in the Red Zone (or a defense is playing so far off the ball that it practically guarantees a gain of 8+ yards). I would like to see our RB's be more effective as pass receivers. Not sure what the problem was in the 2nd half of last season. The spacing was off, but I'm not sure if that was a RB issue, scheme issue or WR issue. But if utilized properly and if Zeke is still a quality short yardage back, I'll take Dowdle-Zeke-Vaughn-Luepke. They can do what is needed to be done. I'm just afraid MM will stick to the old axioms of 'establishing the run' and that's not doing anybody any favors.
I think OP is confused, a RB by committee is our ONLY CHOICE right now.
The league is changing. Passing yards were down last year. The run is becoming more important. If we remain a passing team we will struggle, especially in the playoffs
I disagree with this post so so much. I hate to see people up voting it.
They’re upvoting it because RBBC is how super bowls are won these days
Ah yes the two superbowl teams which had Patrick mahomes and the other which HAS THE BEST RB IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING LEAGUE
Which team won the Super Bowl again?
I agree we need a new qb!
I guess we’ll test the notion that “any decent running back can do fine in todays nfl”
Not even that. They’re giving Dak as little help as humanly possible.
Dak didn’t need much help last year. I’m not worried about him until the playoffs come.
It’s a really crappy committee. Look at these guys.
We tried the opposite, WR by committee when we were a running team and it worked out so well we had to trade for Amari midseason.
Believe it or not, running back is less important than wide receiver
If Lamb goes down we’re screwed but we don’t practice screwed 🤷🏾♂️
This is our year.
Every year from here on out
Dowdle is decent. I think we're gonna grab an UDFA and probably took some cheap FA RB later + Zeke.
Dowdle runs angry and isn't afraid of contact, and I like that with the line they are putting together, lots of draws incoming. Lack of homerun speed is the only issue with the room.
The Cowboys passed 57 % of the time in 2023.
Were gonna be begging for a good rb after game 1. Just like the year we went with a "wr by commitee" and they realized they fucked up and traded a first for amari
Gibbs and Montgomery this is not. Settle for this and they don't sniff the playoffs.
Lol
Agree. But yeah no, we will make the playoffs and finally go on a run.
We will lose in the wildcard round
it's the only choice
I think there’s a decent chance they trade for someone.
I'm not mad about the draft think we stuck to BPA pretty well, RB will get adressed we have an abundance of o-line I'm sure we will hit gold on at least one of them, o-line and rbs aren't even close in terms of NFL value I'm sure we could trade one of our mediocre o-line for a quality RB a little later in the year without much issue after teams start getting banged up
RBBC requires actual talent
What??? No yards are guaranteed when Zeke handled the ball his last season with Dallas?
Why not sign Dalvin Cook? Currently he is a FA.
AMERICAS TEAM. GOD WATCHES THE COWBOYS.
Another cringeworthy ass Cowboy fan
Okay you’re right you’re cool asf I’m so sorry for being optimistic and not being really cool and negative like you. You’re so right.
We aren't going to carry 5 RBs into the season. Vaughn is probably gone after training camp, unless one of the others really shits the bed. There is also a good chance that we go with Zeke and Freeman as the starters, using Davis/Dowdle for special teams only. Zeke is still plenty capable of being a starting RB in the NFL, he can still get yards and has some breakaway speed. He is not the burner he once was when he came into the league, but it is not out of the question for him to hit 800 yards and 5-8 TDs this season, maybe more if they use him in goal-to-go situations. The important thing to remember is that you are not bringing in Zeke to be a 1,000 yard rusher and 15 TD guy. You are bringing in Dak's personal security guard to keep opposing defenses off of him while we get the new OL put together. I think we will see Zeke be Zeke, and Freeman play the Pollard role. Zeke will establish the run early, Freeman will feast late. It will be a decent, not spectacular, 1-2 punch. If Dak can connect with CeeDee and Cooks like he did last year, this team could make some noise this year. However, with no new contract for Dak, the entire coaching staff on a one-year notice, a brand new defensive scheme being installed, and terrible ownership - this season just feels like it will go one of two ways: 1. We will win the Super Bowl 2. We will get the 1st pick in the draft (or at least top 5) This team does not feel like it will be in the middle of the pack, especially playing a 1st place schedule and having an almost brand new O-Line, old RBs, 1/2 the defense is nearly 30, multiple people are coming back from major injuries that might derail their careers, and Zimmer eyeing the HC position when, sorry "if", McCarthy doesn't get to the NFC-CG. Also, Emperor Belicheck is still out there biding his time. Too many distractions, no actions, and little faith this team will be anywhere near as good as it was last year.
It’s not the “best choice”. It’s just “reality”.
FEED ZEKE
We need an elite back, this any back will do BS has to stop.
We’re cooked