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Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but the Cowboys have a very, very broken ground game here in 2024, a team that ranks last in the NFL in rushing yards (519) and yards per attempt (3.4). The Cowboys are not last in the NFL in rushing touchdowns, with three, but they are No. 31 in that category.
This was predictable, of course. The Cowboys allowed last year’s RB1, Tony Pollard, to leave in free agency and only replaced him with washed-up veteran Ezekiel Elliott on a veteran minimum deal. The team had the opportunity to draft a running back in April, but declined to use a pick to help out the obviously deficient running-back room.
If it feels like this has been a topic of discussion for much of the year, then, that’s because it has.
On Tuesday, the NFL will hit its trading deadline. That means the Cowboys have precious little time left to fix their running-game problem, and show that they’re still serious about winning here in what has been a wayward 2024 season.
Miles Sanders Is Relatively Cost-Effective
While just about every available running-back option has been exhausted in mock trade proposals in the last six months, the one that might well make the most sense is the one who also might well be the most available.
That’s Miles Sanders of the Panthers, the former Eagles Pro Bowler who left for Carolina two years ago on a four-year, $24.5 million contract. While Sanders is a red flag because his contract is not expiring after this year, he is a quality back who would upgrade the Cowboys run game immediately.
Sanders is an excellent pass-catcher out of the backfield and has averaged 4.7 yards per attempt in his career. The Cowboys could get him on the cheap in the next two days, then keep him as an inexpensive option going forward.
Cowboys Could Have a Long-Term Solution
That’s the proposal from Mike Ginnitti of the contract-expert site Spotrac. On “The Spotrac Podcast” this week, Ginnitti pointed out how Dallas could fill its running-back hole for the next few years with Sanders.
“Carolina has got to get rid of Miles Sanders. To me, it just has to happen,” Ginnitti said. “One of these contending teams has to look around their room and say, ‘We’ve got to do better than this.’ It could even be a fringe team like Dallas, who, we’ve been talking about their running back room or lack thereof, for, I don’t know, six months now. They threw Dalvin Cook out there to the wolves and it did not go well.”
“Are you giving up more than a sixth-round pick? Probably not. Now, look, there is term on this contract. There’s three years left. … None of that is guaranteed. You can look at it as a million-dollar rental, or you can look at it as, we bring him in as a million-dollar rental, or you look at it as, we bring him in as a million-dollar rental and if this guy can stick in our offense, he’s under term—we ask him to take a pay cut down to $4 million next year, an RB2, and we’ve got a running back for this and next year, and maybe it only costs us a sixth-round pick.
“That’s the outlook for this player.”
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