![\"Cowboys](\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GettyImages-1776930086-e1711457786970.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=780\")
<\/p>\nThe opening of NFL free agency saw a scramble of movement for the league\u2019s running backs, a much-needed bounce-back for the ball carriers after years of market decline at the position. But the Cowboys were among the few teams that opted not to participate, even as their top back from the past two seasons, Tony Pollard, bolted for the Titans.<\/p>\n
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The Cowboys\u2019 lead back currently is Rico Dowdle, a fourth-year player with 96 carries and 385 yards rushing on his career ledger.<\/p>\n
With no apparent additions coming on the free-agent market, the Cowboys appear dead-set on addressing the spot in the upcoming NFL draft. It\u2019s become so obvious that even team vice president Stephen Jones is openly talking about one of the top running backs on the draft board, Texas star Jonathon Brooks.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a periphery basis from afar, going to the combine and things like that, I think he can be a player that can start first day of training camp. Not start, but participate right away,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
Cowboys Doctor Performed Surgery<\/strong> \u200b\u200b\u201dIt always helps when one of the doctors you\u2019re very familiar with does the surgery,\u201d Jones said on Monday, per the Cowboys team website. \u201cThat\u2019ll be very helpful. Obviously, he\u2019s a guy we follow right in our backyard in Texas. He\u2019s got a lot of skill sets. If it wasn\u2019t for the injury, might would\u2019ve ultimately been rated the best back in the draft. Any time that a back is coming off an injury, you have to take those things into account.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones did not want to get too far ahead of himself, though, especially for a player coming off a significant injury. The Cowboys have had a dodgy recent history investing in players coming back from ACL tears\u2014Michael Gallup and Terence Steele come to mind.<\/p>\n \u201cOur understanding is that he has a great chance to be ready to not miss anything, start training camp and go to work,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see. I don\u2019t want to preempt anything. I haven\u2019t seen the medical report.\u201d<\/p>\n Jonathon Brooks \u2018Has an Explosive First Step\u2019<\/strong> While no running backs are expected to go in the first round, it is likely that there will be a run on backs in Round 2 of this year\u2019s draft, and the Cowboys have set themselves up as a team that will need to ensure they get one. On Bleacher Report\u2019s mock draft, the Cowboys select Brooks with the No. 56 overall pick.<\/p>\n In its evaluation of Brooks as a draft prospect, Pro Football Focus wrote that the wait for Brooks appeared to be worth it, as he looked like a future NFL star as just a redshirt sophomore:<\/p>\n \u201cWhile his footwork isn\u2019t quite Robinson\u2019s level, he can cut\/change direction\/avoid tacklers very quickly and has an explosive first step. He isn\u2019t a nuanced route runner, but he has good hands and showcased his ability to force missed tackles as a receiver. The only glaring negative on his scouting report is a torn ACL in 2023 that ended his lone season as a starter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The opening of NFL free agency saw a scramble of movement for the league\u2019s running backs, a much-needed bounce-back for the ball carriers after years of market… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe Cowboys have a link to Brooks right from the get-go. Not only did he suit up for Texas, but when he suffered an ACL tear in November against TCU, it was the Cowboys\u2019 surgeon, Dr. Dan Cooper, who performed the repair on Brooks. It\u2019s unusual for a team official to discuss an individual player in detail, but Jones did so anyway with Brooks.<\/p>\n
\nBrooks had to wait two years behind Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson to get his chance to be a starter, and put together 1,179 yards and 10 touchdowns in 11 games last season before the injury.<\/p>\n