Stop us if you’ve heard this before: The Cowboys don’t have much of a running backs room heading into the 2024 season opener, and adding a probably spent veteran like Dalvin Cook is not going to help matters much.
But would a further raid on the depth chart of the Jets—Cook was a forgotten man in New York last year and eventually let go before the start of the playoffs—really be of much use for the Cowboys?
Maybe, according to the thinking at the analysis site The 33rd Team, which is proposing a trade between the Jets to bring in a potentially dynamic young running back for a late 2025 draft pick. As the site’s Ian Valentino lays it out, the Cowboys could pluck 2023 fifth-round pick Israel Abanikanda from the Jets for a sixth-rounder.
The Cowboys probably would still be lagging in the rush game, but as Valentino writes, the team has the worst running-backs unit in the NFL: “Trading for Israel Abanikanda doesn’t completely resolve that issue, but the electric slasher would add much-needed juice to the run game.”
Israel Abanikanda Broke Tony Dorsett’s Pitt Record
Abanikanda played in six games as a rookie last year, tallying 22 attempts and 70 yards, for an average of 3.2 yards per carry. He was a star at Pittsburgh, though, where he ran for 1,431 yards in 11 games as a junior, tallying 20 touchdowns, plus another as a receiver.
It’s his big-play ability in college that would be of interest to the Cowboys. Abanikanda certainly has that. He broke Pitt’s single-game record for rushing yards, with 320, in October of 2022, topping the 303 yards that former Cowboys great Tony Dorsett put up back in 1975.
Here’s the justification for the trade for Abanikanda, who was outstanding in the preseason, and led all running backs in preseason grading at Pro Football Focus this August:
“Abanikanda can be this team’s 2022 version of Tony Pollard. Abanikanda has routinely created chunk plays since his days at Pitt, and this preseason has highlighted his ability to sprint into the open field. He averaged 6.1 yards per carry, totaling 129 yards on 21 carries with two touchdowns.”
Cowboys Committee Remains a Mystery
As of now, the Cowboys remain unsettled at running back, with Ezekiel Elliott almost grandfathered into the role of starter. Cook is in the wings, but still on the practice squad because he signed with the team only last week.
Rico Dowdle showed promise last year, but is untested. The Cowboys like the big-play ability of Deuce Vaughn, but he played very little as a rookie and lacks the size (he’s 5-foot-5) to be a consistent contributor.
And if you are unsure of how, exactly, the Cowboys’ “committee” of running backs will work this season, take heart: Mike McCarthy does not really seem to know, either.
“As a play caller, you want to play wide open on first, second and third down and you want it to flow,’’ McCarthy said, via the Dallas Morning News.
“My definition of committee is it’s a long year. You want to be able to have distribution throughout that position because of the toll it takes on the running back. We don’t want to necessarily be in personnel groups that every time this particular player runs in or this particular player runs in (it tips play).
“After three or four weeks, you have major tendencies. We want to be able to utilize all of those guys to stay in a normal flow.’’
