But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, it's worth remembering something from a few days ago: Jerry Jones lied to us.
Not that this is anything new, but his blatant “we couldn’t afford him” line about Derrick Henry after the Dallas Cowboys' recent loss to the Baltimore Ravens just struck me, for whatever reason, as the most egregious, blatantly false, absurd abuse of fandom I can remember.
It’s just not true.
For the owner and general manager of an NFL franchise to flat out lie with a comment like that is beyond comical. The Cowboys chose not to sign Derrick Henry, one of the great runners of the last decade who was available for a low price as a free agent during the offseason. Hell, they made the same decision with all of the other, many prominent free agent running backs piled on this year’s free agent market.
It wasn't because the team couldn’t afford it, but simply because they didn’t want to. Why was that? Who really knows? But I feel like the average fan these days is just too smart to buy into half the crap that Jones throws out there these days. That’s especially true for the idea that the team could not afford to sign Henry.
To my knowledge, just about every Cowboys player has a clause in their contract that allows the Cowboys to restructure the deal as the team sees fit. It happens every offseason. A team can and will do this for a variety of reasons, including to simply create the salary cap space to sign a new player, someone like Derrick Henry.
If you want to sign a player in the NFL, you can. Sure, it might catch up to you down the road, you may have to get creative with a smaller amount of money under the cap, you may have to extend your franchise QB’s contract earlier than the day before the season (which created millions in cap space), or you may have to extend your star wide receiver before he decides to hold out in training camp. But make no mistake, if the will is there, a way is as well.
The fact is, the Cowboys had a way to sign a great running back months ago that wouldnt have required them mortgaging their future financial flexibility. The Cowboys’ owner should realize that we can know that pretty easily these days.
The Cowboys lowered CeeDee Lamb’s cap hit from around $17 million this year to $8.75 million when they signed him to a record-breaking extension. That created a difference of $8.25 million in just that one move. Henry’s contract with Baltimore this year carries a cap hit of $5.1 million. Even with the monster Dak Prescott contract, the Cowboys created around an additional $4 million of space under the cap by some rather standard contract restructuring.
But Jones wanted to tell us they couldn’t afford him. The honest answer, the real answer is simply that the Cowboys did not want to pay for a star running back.
Jones should’ve just said that. Just say, “We don’t value the running back position to invest at a number that high.” Or something along the lines of, “Unlike several other clubs who spent money this offseason upgrading their running back position, we feel we have what we need at that position to compete.”
Say something else, anything else almost, but don’t just tell an outright lie. “We couldn’t afford Derrick Henry.” Lie.
The other issue here is the complete misjudgment of where the running back position is going in the NFL. As I’ve written about here before, one of the big “ifs” of the season was if the running back position and the offensive line with two rookies starting on it were genuinely ready for the season. So far, the answer to that question has been a pretty easy “no.”
The o-line has not created the type of run push they were hoping for, and the trio of running backs does not have the explosiveness it needs to help create plays. Defenses are playing more two-high safeties (almost 10% more as compared with five years ago), daring teams to run the ball. According to Pro Football Reference, NFL team passing yards per game are the lowest they've been in more than 20 years and passing touchdowns are down to just 1.2 per game this season—the fewest since 1993. On top of that, there were 14 different 100-yard rushers in the first two weeks of the season, up from last season when that number hovered around 5 each week.
Simply put, the league is using running backs more than they have in recent years. Ten running backs signed new contracts with an average annual value over $5 million dollars. Clearly, the league is reversing the devaluation of the position that’s taken place lately. The Cowboys big spend at the position? The $2 million dollar deal they gave to past-his-prime returnee Ezekiel Elliott.
In other comments Jones has made about the running back position, he seems to have alluded to the idea that money from the past inhibited them from signing someone like Henry. Let’s keep in mind: Elliott is playing for $2 million this season, but is also counting an additional $6 million against the cap this year in dead cap money thanks to his 2022 release from Dallas. Perhaps the front office (a.k.a. Jerry Jones) looks at Elliott as an $8 million dollar running back since that’s his cost on the team’s salary cap this year. Again, who knows? Regardless of what the real viewpoint is, it’s been clear so far this season that the Cowboys' run game is absolutely not working.
The longest run of the season for Dallas going into the game against the Giants last night isn’t even from a running back. It was a 12-yard jet sweep from wide receiver CeeDee Lamb against Cleveland in Week 1. Rico Dowdle’s career-long run is 21 yards, his second career long run is 20 yards and then 17. So, in his entire career, he has a grand total of three runs of more than 15 yards. Elliott, in his last two seasons has runs of 17, 14, 13, 12, 12, 11, 10 yards. So, in his last 200-plus rushing attempts he has only seven runs of more than 10 yards. Deuce Vaughn has but a single run for over 10 yards.
Derrick Henry is bullying the Cowboys D
— PFF (@PFF) September 22, 2024
pic.twitter.com/XQAxtYFd6J
In case the picture isn’t clear enough, the Dallas trio of running backs have failed to show the explosiveness other backs in the league are currently showing — including the man they allegedly could not afford. (Cue the sarcastic eye roll.) Henry had five runs of 10 or more yards in the one game against the Cowboys, and had two more in a game against the Raiders this season. That already gives him seven runs of 10 yards or more on 56 attempts this season. Quite the contrast to what we’ve seen here in Dallas.
Saquon Barkley, another big money free agent this past offseason, has eight runs of at least 10 yards so far this year. How about J.K. Dobbins? He signed a one year, $1.6-million contract, even cheaper than Zeke’s deal. This year in L.A. he has eight such rushes in his 42 attempts. Examples of the explosiveness the Cowboys lack are plentiful so far in this very young season.
Is the offensive line a problem? Partially. But again, if you knew you were coming into a season with two rookies starting on your line, wouldn’t you want to invest in a back who has that potential to be explosive if the holes are ever there? You could. You should.
So far this season the Cowboys have been in the bottom three in rushing yards and the bottom four in yards per rushing attempt. And here’s the thing: I honestly don’t know what the best answer is to fix all this.
The hope that the offensive line will grow over time and develop together is out there. The passing game with Prescott and Lamb should click at some point and help the run game a bit. But I’m comfortable telling you I don’t know the answer, because, unlike Jerry Jones, I won’t lie to you.
