We have in the past taken the position that running backs are too replaceable to use first-round capital on.''
And the NFL has for the last few years agreed with that idea.
Has anything changed? And if so, who changed it?
Answers: Maybe. And Saquon Barkley.
And that takes us to the Dallas Cowboys - as vulnerable as any team to the "Copycat League Syndrome'' ... and Ashton Jeanty.
In our judgment, the Boise State prospect might line up nicely in this NFL Draft with Dallas picking at No. 12. ... because Jeanty might just be far from "replaceable.''
The running back position as a whole has been devalued; that mindset is still in place. But what if the player is just that special?
Just look at what Barkley did for the Eagles. Or how big an impact Derrick Henry and Josh Jacobs had for their respective offenses in Baltimore and Green Bay. Those guys are "erasers'' in the sense that they are good enough to eliminate problems elsewhere on the offense.
We think Ashton Jeanty is an eraser.
Guys like Saquon (and prime-time Ezekiel Elliott) are talents with the ability to make everything else look good even when everything else is bad.
They have the ability to hammer away in short yardage, and also to make one guy miss and house one from 60 yards.
The trick on the "valuation of the running back'' isn't that they're worthless - it's that their worth must be properly evaluated.
How many backs are there worth Saquon's $13 million per year deal? That's a very, very short list.
But drafting Jeanty in the No. 12 slot? That's going to end up being a four-year, $20 million deal - just $5 million annually for a premium talent - an "eraser.''
The Dallas coaching staff has been re-made into one with a run-first mindset; the four most important and highest ranking coaches on the offensive side all have a "masters degree'' in running the football, including the Cowboys new offensive coordinator Klayton Adams, who has Boise State ties.
So upon re-evaluation? Pick No. 12 isn't too high. And $5 million per year isn't too much. Not when the Cowboys are essentially in search of Saquon 2.0.
