There are real names and real scenarios explaining why the Cowboys haven't drafted a running back. And they are not the fault of Mazi Smith.
FRISCO - It really, truly has been a recent Dallas Cowboys NFL Draft intention to select a running back, particularly last April ... but for the most part, the dominoes simply didn't fall quite right.
Said COO Stephen Jones following last year's draft: "It just felt like every time the situation was there for us to make a pick and do the right thing (according to their big board), it wasn't a running back. We had running backs we'd be thinking, 'OK, our pick is coming in 10 picks, eight picks, five picks away,' and then there would be run (of other teams taking backs).
"We obviously had a group of running backs there in that space of 75 or 85 players leave the board (in the fourth and fifth rounds), and we had a handful of backs that we would've considered, but it just didn't work out.''
That is all true. It started in Round 2, where Dallas loved Texas' Jonathon Brooks and presumably would've taken him at pick No. 56 ... but Carolina got him with the 46th pick. And on and on it went, with Bucky Irving and Blake Corum and Jaylen Wright and Marshawn Lloyd and Braelon Allen and Trey Benson and Ray Davis and Tyrone Tracy and Will Shipley.
A bunch of those kids have made their marks as rookies. They might've done the same in Dallas. No excuses; it just didn't fall right.
Those names and scenarios from last year are factual. What about the year before, where a headline-grabbing story this week is about how the Cowboys "almost drafted Detroit Lions star Jahmyr Gibbs''?
In the same week during which Dallas is dumping its ill-fated "running back-by-committee'' plan and installing Rico Dowdle the lead back (he'll be featured on "Monday Night Football'' when the 3-6 Cowboys host the Houston Texans), it is being written that Dallas "nearly landed star running back Gibbs in 2023 NFL Draft.''
It's a heck of a story. And it's Gibbs himself who is telling it. Problem? It's not true.
Gibbs is now revealing (via the Richard Sherman podcast) that he "knew" the Cowboys were poised to draft him with the No. 26 overall pick if he was still available. What some are skipping over in their reviews of Gibbs' story is that we are talking about a gigantic "if'' here.
Did Dallas have Gibbs ranked ahead of Michigan defensive tackle Mazi Smith, who came here with the No. 26 pick? We'll assume that's true. Did Dallas then "choose Mazi over Gibbs''? That's not true. ...
Because the Lions selected Gibbs with the No. 12 pick. ... a full 14 slots ahead of where the Cowboys were choosing. There's no "almost'' there.
The Lions (and the Cowboys!) were right about the dynamic Gibbs. He made the Pro Bowl as a rookie and currently ranks in the top 10 in rushing yards (727) and touchdowns (seven). But that has nothing to do with Mazi or the 26th pick.
A better argument for history's sake is the 2024 NFL Draft. Well after Carolina took Brooks, Dallas used the No. 56 overall pick on defensive end Marshawn Kneeland rather than reach for a back.
Then came Round 3, when Dallas picked linebacker Marist Liufau at No. 87, choosing him over the likes of Lloyd, who went to Green Bay with the very next pick.
And in Round 4? Another problem: Wright, Irving, Allen, Davis, Shipley and Issac Guerendo all flew off the board, and Dallas couldn't act because it didn't have a fourth-round pick, having traded it to the Niners a year prior for Trey Lance.
To Round 5 (at which point we're no longer talking about "premium picks''), where Audric Estimé, Rasheen Ali, Tyrone Tracy and Isaiah Davis are all gone, leaving Dallas to pick cornerback Caelen Carson at No. 174.
