We’ve only just wrapped up Week 6 in the NFL, and already, the vulture are circling at The Star, home of the Dallas Cowboys. We’ll take a moment to point out that all is not lost, that the team has time to recover its once-proud offense and push forward with defensive improvements in the coming weeks. But, as things stand, each time the Cowboys take the field, there seems to emerge some fresh new insult, some new way for observers of the team to have their minds boggled. In Green Bay on Sunday, it was Javonte Williams doing the boggling.
Now, that’s not all Williams’ fault. He had 11 carries on Sunday, for 41 yards, and has now been limited to 12 or fewer carries in four of the Cowboys’ six games.
As Brandon Loree of the Blogging the Boys SB Nation site pointed out, the Cowboys have seen their rush attempts drop from 15th-most in the league last year to 20.3 this year, last in the NFL. The pass attempts have ticked up from 36.7 to 41.0. Wrote Loree: “It’s pretty simple—Dallas needs to get back to running the football.”
Cowboys Knew More Was Needed
Ah, but is it simple? Think back to Cowboys training camp, and the team was trying hard to sort out an issue that it had recognized coming into the year: Williams needed more help. The Cowboys wanted to keep Williams as the steamroller back, but add a big-play jitterbug type who could give the team a different dimension. The hope was that would be 2025 draftee Jaydon Blue, but Blue flamed out, the Cowboys cut him and the team just dropped the matter of finding a complement to Williams’ power style altogether.
The Cowboys knew it would be an issue, but when Plan A did not work out, they had no Plan B. And after investing a three-year, $24 million contract in Williams, the Cowboys did not want to put any more resources into the position.
Javonte Williams Not a Big-Play Threat
That decision is coming home to roost for the Cowboys. That’s the view of Gavin Dawson of 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, who points out that Williams is a solid grinder of a back but not a big-play threat, and teams have adjusted their defenses accordingly.
Said Dawson: “This is also a front office that looked at Javonte Williams and said, ‘Oh, yeah, this guy is a star, let’s reload this.’ Best-case scenario is that you are going to have a high run-success rate, but no explosives. You’re not threatening the defense. So, in effect, what you’re getting into is a situation where the defenses are saying, ‘You can run if you want to, worst-case scenario is we’re gonna stop you after six yards. We’re going to put all our resources into trying to scramble your quarterback.’ And it’s working.”
Cowboys Not Getting Space for Javonte Williams
That’s mostly true. The Cowboys have an excellent offensive line that should be able to create holes for Williams. His longest play this season has been 22 yards, and he has not been able to break tackles the way he did last season–he broke 25 tackles in 16 games in 2025, and has broken only three in 2026. But it’s hard to break tackles in a crowd, and Williams is frequently running into crowds these days.
Again, a quality change-of-pace back would help this problem. But it was an issue that the Jerry and Stephen Jones front office left to die, and they’re paying a price.
As Dawson said: “I don’t want to leave Schotty off the hook but this is more a Jones incompetence. A general front office failure.”
Cowboys ‘Incompetence’ Called Out for Star’s Struggles