Dallas Cowboys: Montee Ball worth trading for?

Although most people would look at the Dallas Cowboys backfield of Joseph Randle, Darren McFadden, and Lance Dunbar and say “Wow, they could use a more proven player to off-set all of these unknown commodities, even if the Cowboys are high on their potential),” Jerry Jones hasn’t looked into any of the veteran running back options that have cropped up. After denying Chris Johnson‘s overtures (which was understandable, though he did look pretty good for the Arizona Cardinals last night), the Cowboys have denied any interest in recently released veteran Fred Jackson (for now, at least).

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The Cowboys haven’t been busy kicking the tires on any running back options this offseason…until now. CBS4’s Vic Lombardi, who is one of the most plugged-in reporters on the Denver Broncos beat right now, reports that the Cowboys and Broncos are “discussing” a trade that would send Montee Ball to Dallas as the fourth member of their backfield rotation.

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As you’ve probably heard, Ball’s standing on the Broncos depth chart has slipped considerably, and the slide started ever since he went down with an injury in 2014 after averaging a paltry 3.1 yards per carry. Offensive line regression played a bit of a role in that, since Ball isn’t a back who can get more than what’s in front of him. But considering how good the Broncos passing attack is and how well C.J. Anderson and Ronnie Hillman have played since then, you can see why there aren’t many viable excuses for Ball from the Broncos perspective.

The fact is that they seem to like Juwan Thompson and Kapri Bibbs more anyway, making Ball more than expendable. He didn’t exactly show well in last night’s preseason game, which was regarded as a make-or-break game for him when it comes to his chances of making the Broncos roster. He received a huge workload for a preseason game with 16 carries, but he managed to average a horrendous 1.7 yards per carry against backups.

So that’s why the Broncos want to get rid of Ball. They have one running back, Anderson, who absolutely demolished opponents in the second-half of the 2014 season, and another running back, Hillman, who has plenty of three-down talent and has been arguably the team’s brightest star on offense this preseason.

This all raises the question, why do the Dallas Cowboys even want Ball? What do they see in a player who struggled badly last season, flopped when the chips were on the table this preseason, and lacks straight-line speed, agility, and size?

For starters, let’s take a look at why Ball is a big name and a former second-round pick by a franchise that is generally elite at identifying talent.

Firstly, Ball looked pretty good as a rookie, even if it was as a No. 2 back behind an elite offensive line on the most prolific offense in NFL history. He showed off solid hands with 20 receptions, and he ran for an efficient 4.7 yards per carry on 119 attempts with four rushing touchdowns thrown in. Ball fumbled the ball often, but he looked like a legitimate three-down back who could move the pile and score like he did in college.

Over the 2014 offseason, Ball seemed to improve his pass-catching skills further, and he was hyped up as a possible fantasy star and feature back. The wheels flew off the bandwagon, though, and, just as Knowshon Moreno starred in Ball’s rookie, it was a different Broncos RB who made the profound fantasy impact behind Peyton Manning.

Ball’s record success in college was attributed to his vision, the high number of carries he received in the Wisconsin offense, his vision, and a mauling offensive line that made life easier on him. Cowboys elite Travis Frederick is someone Ball is quite familiar with, and he a couple of his even more impressive line-mates (guard Zack Martin and left tackle Tyron Smith) would certainly make life easier on Ball.

As we saw last season with DeMarco Murray, the Cowboys ideally would like to run the ball often, and Ball profiles as a potential workhorse-type back. I’m sure the Cowboys would prefer to use all of their backs and are probably still high on Randle, who flashed real talent at times in 2014, but adding Montee Ball would increase their chances of having a breakout back on their squad.

The Broncos are so good at drafting players and identifying impact UDFAs (Shaq Barrett is a prime example of the latter) that they don’t overvalue players based on draft pedigree, so you’d have to assume that they’d be perfectly willing to release Ball if no deal takes place.

That said, I’m not sure exactly how cheap Ball will be, since I could see the Broncos sucking up as much as a sixth-round pick out of the Cowboys (other teams are interested, per Lombardi, including the Houston Texans), even if they, based on how they’ve treated free agent veterans this offseason, aren’t necessarily desperate to bring in new blood.

Working in Ball’s favor is the fact that he can point to last season’s injury as an excuse for his poor play, though I’m not sure how much the groin injury explains his struggles this preseason. Nevertheless, the Cowboys seem like an ideal set-up for him to emerge as a viable running back, and it might not be difficult for him to be prove that he’s a better option than McFadden and Dunbar.

Cowboys beat writer Clarence Hill tweeted that a source within the Cowboys organization has refuted these trade rumors, but that doesn’t mean nothing has taken place. My guess is that the Cowboys don’t have a high amount of interest in getting something done, but a Ball-Cowboys link is still at least worth discussing due to the original report, which may still be true. I mean, the Cowboys have much more reason to mislead fans about trade talks (especially given their public confidence of their less-than-settled RB committee) than the Broncos do.

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