Just a day after the Dallas Cowboys cut their roster down to 53 players, they made more moves on Wednesday. One such move saw rookie running back Phil Mafah added to the injured reserve with a designation to return, meaning he’ll have to miss at least four games before he can return.
That means the Cowboys will have just three running backs on the roster to start the year: Javonte Williams, Miles Sanders, and rookie Jaydon Blue. Hunter Luepke is also there, though he’ll likely be used more at fullback and tight end.
After ending the preseason with just as much uncertainty around the running back rotation as the start of training camp, the Cowboys have now made things perfectly clear with their roster decisions the past couple of days.
Each new week of camp brought with it the growing suspicion that Williams was going to be the first one up to bat in the run game. He’s received the most first team reps of anyone in practices, and was the only running back on the roster to not play a single snap in the preseason. He seems likely to be given the lion’s share of carries early on this season.
Sanders once seemed to be in the same boat, given his veteran status, but a poor performance in his lone preseason performance may have shifted things. His skillset is similar to that of Blue, as both are more slender, athletic runners with plus ability catching the ball out of the backfield.
Were it not for Blue’s injury that kept him out of the first two preseason games, and then ended his third one prematurely, it’s possible that Sanders would have been cut on Tuesday as a redundancy for Blue. That’s something to keep in the back of our minds for when Mafah is ready to return from the injured reserve, too.
As it stands now, though, it seems like Williams will be the top back with Sanders likely being relied on for running ability outside the tackles and in pass-catching scenarios. Blue will undoubtedly get some work, too, but the coaching staff may introduce him into the offense gradually due to 1) being a rookie and 2) having had less time than others in the preseason.
Of course, we also know from practices in camp that Brian Schottenheimer intends to utilize KaVontae Turpin at running back for some select plays. Turpin is unlikely to ever carry the ball more than five times in a game, but his utilization there also adds complexity to this rotation.
It’s still fair to wonder if this rotation will even work out. Neither Williams nor Sanders have been reliable starting running backs in quite some time, and Blue may not be ready for a heavy workload right out the gate. We haven’t even seen Williams play a snap of real football with a star on his helmet, after all.
Nevertheless, we now at least have an idea of how the carry distribution will go in Week 1.
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