Dallas Cowboys meet with agent of RB Tony Pollard, Texas star Bijan Robinson is next
Although the running back position may be diminishing in the eyes of many around the NFL, it will be a central focus for the Dallas Cowboys as they build their roster for the 2023 season, especially with coach Mike McCarthy announcing plans to put more emphasis on the ground game as the new play caller and 2022 leading-rusher Tony Pollard not currently under contract.
On the team’s blue-star emblazoned bus outside of the Marriott Hotel in Indianapolis, the Cowboys began the process on Thursday with the first of a series of meetings with Kennard McGuire, Pollard’s agent,
It was the beginning of a string of meetings with the agents of impending Cowboys free agents over the next two days during the NFL Scouting Combine. The sessions will also include an expected Saturday meeting with the agent of Texas star Bijan Robinson, per source.
Robinson, the top rated running back in the 2023 NFL Draft and arguably a top 10 talent, could possibly be off the board when the Cowboys pick at No. 26 in the first round.
But the team plans to their homework on 2022 Doak Walker Award winner as the best running back in college football.
Vice president Stephen Jones has already said the Cowboys wouldn’t take a running back in the top half of the draft because they are not considered 10-year players, but that thought process doesn’t apply where they are picking late in the first round.
“I think certainly if the right guy were there and you loved him and you needed him, then you’d take him,” Stephen Jones said.
Re-signing Pollard remains the primary focus with the Cowboys looking to get it done via the franchise tag for $10.1 million 2023 or a multi-year extension.
The latter is the preference for Pollard and McGuire, who are negotiating against a Cowboys team that is still trying to navigate the future of veteran running back Ezekiel Elliott, who is facing the prospect of taking a pay cut or being cut due a seemingly now-regrettable six-year, $90 million he got in 2019 and his decline in production over the last three seasons.
At 25, Pollard does not the have the wear and tear on is body that Elliott had or has.
And he not only one of the top free agent running back prospects on the market but he is coming off one of the most productive seasons of any running back in the NFL in terms of yards per carry, yards after contract, explosive runs, big plays in the passing game and total touchdowns.
The Cowboys will not expose Pollard to free agency. He is expected to receive an extension or get the franchise tag before the deadline on March 7.
