Breaking down the Dallas Cowboys running back depth chart
By Randy Gurzi
The Dallas Cowboys revamped their running backs this offseason. Here’s a look at the current depth chart ahead of the 2019 season.
No team believes in running the ball as much as the Dallas Cowboys have since Jason Garrett took the reins as head coach during the 2010 season. It hasn’t always worked out the way he desired, but in recent years they’ve started to make progress toward becoming the offense he envisioned back then.
Garrett’s vision has been to build an offensive line that could compete with the dominant front-five from the 1990s when they won three Super Bowls. Garrett, who was a backup quarterback from 1993 to 1999 in Big D saw first hand how a powerful unit up front could devastate defenses and wear them down.
He also saw how a running back could be elevated due to the play of the line. Emmitt Smith ended up becoming one of the best in the game and finished his career as the NFL all-time rushing leader. Since moving to coach, he’s seen players such as DeMarco Murray and Ezekiel Elliott lead the league in rushing thanks to the combination of the line and their incredible talent.
Heck, we even witnessed Darren McFadden have a career resurgence in 2015 when he ran for 1,089 yards behind the Cowboys beefed-up line.
Of course, the Cowboys weren’t a good team that season and McFadden wasn’t an equal replacement for what Murray brought to the table. This led to them using the N. 4 overall pick on Ezekiel Elliott, who has led the league in rushing twice in his first three seasons.
As good as he has been, the reserves didn’t live up to their expectations in 2018. That’s led to a change to the Dallas running back depth chart, which we will dive into ahead of the 2019 season.