The Dallas Cowboys sent a major message to its locker room and offense this week as they added a linebacker on defense and cut a running back on offense.
With training camp arriving in less than two weeks, Dallas and the rest of the NFL are filling out their 90-man rosters if they haven’t already. With the arrivals of linebackers Malik Jefferson and Christian Sam and kicker Lirim Hajrullahu, the Cowboys had to release one player to meet the requirement: running back JaQuan Hardy.
Dallas revealed that Hardy was being cut alongside the official announcement that Jefferson was joining the team.
“The @dallascowboys made the following transactions on Thursday: – Released RB JaQuan Hardy (Tiffin) – Signed LB Malik Jefferson (Texas),” the Cowboys’ official PR account posted on July 15.
The @dallascowboys made the following transactions on Thursday:
– Released RB JaQuan Hardy (Tiffin)
– Signed LB Malik Jefferson (Texas)
It’s a significant release due to the message it is essentially sending to the offense: the running back group can go in a lot of different directions. The Cowboys now have five running backs on roster in Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollard, Rico Dowdle, Malik Davis, and Aaron Shampklin, with the final two names being UDFA rookies that have a lot to prove to make a roster.
If there’s any more trimming done in the running back department, it will likely be just one more cut to get to the group to three.
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Hardy Got NFL Start with Cowboys
Joining the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2021, not many Cowboys fans were familiar with the Cleveland-born running back. That’s primarily due to playing his college career at Tiffin, a Division II school in Tiffin, Ohio.
However, Hardy’s eye-catching volume numbers at Tiffin is something Dallas took notice of. The 24-year-old running back averaged 6.4 yards per carry and totaled 3207 yards to 28 touchdowns while playing for the Dragons.
After signing with the Cowboys and being demoted to the practice squad during final roster cuts, Hardy eventually got his chance with an injury to Pollard in Week 13. Hardy was activated the following two weeks and in Week 18, and he got to see his first regular-season NFL snaps.
That being said, the opportunities were limited, as PFR shows. Hardy took five hand-offs for a total of 29 yards between the three games.
Overall, it’s hard to consider Hardy’s season in Dallas a failure. He worked his way onto the practice squad as an undrafted free agent, and then did well when he did get a couple touches. Now, he can work on getting a roster spot at his next location.
Dallas Moves Forward with New UDFA
Hardy’s release at this juncture may have been done with good intentions: by releasing the running back a couple weeks before training camps start across the league, Hardy can find a team to impress.
However, the presence of Malik Davis has to be considered. Like Hardy, Davis is coming to Dallas as an UDFA but has the pedigree of playing for Florida and a record-setting high school career at Jesuit High School in Tampa.
What will be difficult to determine is if the Cowboys are planning to have three or four running backs on the final 53-man roster. If there’s four spots, Davis and Shampklin should have a position battle to determine who gets the last spot. If Dallas only has room for three RBs, it’s hard seeing either make the team.
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Cowboys Release Promising Running Back After New Free Agency Addition