If only the Dallas Cowboys front office had access to a phone. A simple landline even, if not a cell phone.
Or an e-mail account.
Or an account with Zoom or Skype for that matter.
Even a smoke signal might have helped. Some way that they could have communicated with the outside world this past spring.
Then they would have been able to speak with free agent running backs Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley.
They might have been able to convince either of them to come to Dallas and play football this fall in a Cowboys uniform.
Apparently, though, these options were nowhere to be found at The Star. Oh, what might have been.
Instead, Dallas found Ezekiel Elliott wandering around in the hallway and threw a jersey with the number “15” on it at him.
A couple of others apparently made a wrong turn into the parking lot in Frisco. Royce Freeman among them.
None of them are on the active roster and Freeman is up in Cleveland.
Dalvin Cook was signed, after they ran into him at a local HEB, probably, and has been on the practice squad since.
That he hasn’t been elevated likely means he’ll remain there for a few more weeks. Unless there’s an injury, I doubt he comes off it this season at all.
In short, the Cowboys’ (allegedly) great brain trust went all-in on a running back room of has-beens and never-was backs.
Four games in, Dallas as a team has 301 rushing yards. Rico Dowdle leads the team with 134 yards.
That’s total rushing yards over all four games combined.
Elliott has 81 yards on 24 carries (20 YPG).
CeeDee Lamb is third with 33 and Dak Prescott is fourth with 21. That’s a wide receiver and quarterback being third and fourth on the team in rushing.
Oh, what should have been.
Derrick Henry Leads The NFL
Meanwhile, Henry is leading the entire league in rushing with 480 yards. That’s 179 yards more than the entire Cowboys’ team.
Henry has two games this year when he has finished with more rushing yards in that game than Dowdle has for all four games combined.
You might recall one of those games. When Henry posted 151 yards and two touchdowns against Dallas at AT&T Stadium.
He followed that up with an impressive 199-yard effort against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night.
What About Saquon?
As for Barkley, he currently ranks third in the NFL in rushing with 435 yards. Merely 134 more than the Cowboys as a team.
He’s had one game, 147 yards against the Saints, with more rushing yards than Dowdle’s season total.
Like Henry, he was available to be signed in free agency this spring. Also, like Henry, he never heard from Dallas.
Barkley will face the Cowboys twice in an Eagles uniform this year. I imagine he will also be motivated to put up big numbers against Dallas.
If only there were telephones or computers at The Star.
The Cowboys Signees
Here’s what the Cowboys are paying out to the running back room (and this doesn’t include some of the draft picks from this year and last either):
- Ezekiel Elliott $2,000,000
- Royce Freeman $1,292,500
- Rico Dowdle $1,255,000
- Deuce Vaughn $948,334
- Hunter Luepke $921,666
- Dalvin Cook $383,400
- Malik Davis $225,000
The Ravens are paying Henry $5 million in 2024. That’s just $1.5 million more than what Dallas is shelling out for Elliot, Cook, and Freeman.
Henry is outperforming them all – combined.
Barkley is also outperforming the three free agent backs the Cowboys brought in. He is only costing the Eagles $3.8 million this year.
That’s just a little over $200,000 more than what Dallas is paying its three backs combined. That’s criminal malfeasance by the front office.
Made worse by the fact that it has been reported that the Cowboys never picked up a phone and tried to see what could be done.
Nothing Left In The Barrel To Scrape
Dallas has gone “all-in” on bargain basement shopping when it comes to outside free agent signings.
It’s an approach that has contributed to the nearly three-decade-long Super Bowl drought. This year, this approach is biting them hard.
Henry is from Dallas and had made it known he wanted to play for the Cowboys.
Somehow, he couldn’t even rate a phone call from Jerry Jones?
An e-mail?
A single damn to give? Anything except the utter silence from Jerry Jones?
We’ll watch in frustration as Henry and Barkley pile up the rushing yards and touchdowns while Dowdle and Elliott barely get their uniforms dirty.
But there’s one thing to keep in mind. Maybe this will finally convince the Jones regime that there’s nothing left to scrape at the bottom of the barrel.
Or at least go down to the local mall and find one of those kiosks that offer cell phones for sale.