Are Dallas Cowboys heading toward another committee approach at running back?
At the start of the 2024 season, the Dallas Cowboys running game was worse than bad.
It was awful.
A failed experiment to bring Ezekiel Elliott back into a running back-by-committee approach with Rico Dowdle proved to be the biggest hindrance for an offense that sputtered out of the gates to sustain drives and score points.
It wasn’t until a week nine dust-up between Elliott and the coaching staff that led to Dowdle becoming the featured back for the rest of the season and, coincidentally or not, the best production the Cowboys got from the run game all season as Dowdle finished with 1,079 yards with 833 of those coming after he was made the clear starter.
Just a few months later, Dowdle is now with the Panthers and Elliott’s messy split from the team has him sitting in the purgatory of running back free agency. The Cowboys added two running backs in free agency, Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders, and followed that up with adding two draft picks in Jaydon Blue and Phil Mafah.
The options that present themselves are a lot more fruitful than what Dallas was working with going into 2024. Still, there are questions about which of the four options will be the starter when the Cowboys trot out the offense in week one, and if that starter will be the featured back or simply the front-facing option of yet another committee approach at the position.
“It’s still too early,” head coach Brian Schottenheimer said when asked directly if the team is going for a committee approach. “I think what we definitely did was we improved the competition in that room...The strange thing about the running back position is you really don’t find out about them until you get out to [training camp].”
“I will say this. We feel like through this offseason, we have built an incredibly strong running back room.”
Now, it would be unfair to consider 2024’s failed committee approach as an indictment toward all committee running back rooms. When the Cowboys’ running game was at its best in 2021 and 2022, it had Elliott and Tony Pollard combining to form a balanced, power-speed run game that created big plays, and more importantly scoring plays, for the offense.
But even when that was the committee, Elliott always got the start and ended up with the majority of the touches over the course of a game. In 2024, who earned those honors was a lot more sporadic.
And there are probably lessons to be learned from that seven-game stretch last season that had Dallas among the worst in the NFL in rushing yards. The idea is that one of those lessons will be to dedicate time and touches in 2025 to a clear number-one option before resorting to others in the room as a complement.
“We like the two veterans we brought in and we thought the two we picked complemented each other,” executive vice president Stephen Jones said. “We got the explosive really juicy back [in Blue] and then we got the big back [in Mafah].”
The Cowboys haven’t had a reliable short-yardage running back since 2022 when Elliott was still a goal line presence. In 2025, Mafah will be able to fill that role at 6-foot-1, 234 pounds. On late passing downs, Dallas will have to juggle the option of going with the experienced Williams, who has shined as a pass protector and as a receiving option through four years in the league, or with Blue, who has proven his own value in both of those categories during his time in college at Texas.
In starting drives, would first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer want Jaydon Blue’s home run ability in the backfield even if his 5-foot-9, 195-pound frame could give up some production in the short yardage game? Or is starting a reliable, but speed-limited Mafah the better option? He could also turn to either veteran in Williams and Sanders who have been in the situation before.
Regardless of who it is, the desire should be to find intention in the run game. In 2024, it never felt like there was a clear purpose until Dowdle was made the primary ball carrier. Whether if it’s a committee approach or a clear one-two attack, the hope is that it’s figured out exactly when Schottenheimer said it would be: training camp.
Not midway through the season.
This story was originally published May 5, 2025 at 4:58 PM.
