Dallas Cowboys lead Rico Dowdle's game, Ezekiel Elliott has no success

When the Dallas Cowboys began their offseason, one of the most glaring problems was the running back position. They had the opportunity to take on three-time All-Pro Derrick Henry. This made perfect sense because Henry trains in Dallas in the offseason and also has the same agent as Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. However, according to team owner Jerry Jones, the team could not afford Henry, even though his contract was only for two years, $16 million and had $9 million guaranteed.

There was also the possibility of bringing Tony Pollard back. He ended up signing with the Tennessee Titans two days after Henry left for Baltimore, leaving the Cowboys in first place. Then there was the NFL draft in April. Most thought the Cowboys would certainly make a move on a running back at some point. Surprisingly, the Cowboys didn't take a single one, instead signing Nathaniel Peat as an undrafted free agent. When the season began, Dallas was adamant that the committee was going after the running back spot with Ezekiel Elliott and Rico Dowdle as the main horses.

Needless to say, the running back experiment failed in the first three weeks. In rushing, Dallas ranks 30th in the league with 73.7 yards per game and 29th with an average of 3.6 yards per rush. Dowdle, who leads the team in rushing, currently has 88 yards this year. Elliott totaled just 62 yards. The former has a season-long rushing total of 10 yards, while the latter's biggest gain is nine yards. To make matters worse, the longest run by a Cowboys player of the year is 12 yards and that came from wide receiver CeeDee Lamb. This is not ideal at all.

This isn't a knock on Dowdle or Elliott. Both have certain skills that can be valuable to a team, such as Elliott being an effective short-yardage and goal-line runner. However, neither of them nor any of the Cowboys' runners are game changers. There isn't one that scares the opposing defense. Making matters worse is the Cowboys' lack of creativity in their running plan. There is no pre-snap movement or anything else to confuse the defense. So there's no way for them to take advantage of what these guys are consistently good at. You just have to hand the ball off in the A or B gap and hope for the best. It feels very generic.

What makes matters even more frustrating is the organization's refusal to resolve this issue. The aforementioned Jones stated that he likes the Cowboys' situation and doesn't see any changes to the roster. This is simply football misconduct by Dallas. In addition to the running back, there are also defensive tackle and wide receiver issues that are glaring. It just doesn't make sense to think like that.

The Cowboys are basically saying they're just going to use everything they have on the field at running back and hope for the best. It's irritating and irritating that Dallas is taking this route to team building. It can't just be the draft where you put all your chips on the table. Unfortunately, that's the Cowboys way, and the players still have to win, which is extremely difficult.