The Dallas Cowboys are a team with myriad problems.
Running the ball is principally among them. The Cowboys rank last in the NFL with 77.2 rushing yards per game, an anchor on an offense that was projected to be explosive with Dak Prescott throwing the ball to All-Pro receiver CeeDee Lamb.
Instead, the Cowboys boast the league’s 20th-ranked scoring unit (21 points per game) and most recently lost for the third time in three home games via an embarrassing 47-9 defeat to the Detroit Lions. It’s added up to an increasingly agitated Jerry Jones as the Cowboys owner makes his regular media rounds.
Jerry Jones talks Derrick Henry
On Tuesday, Jones addressed the Cowboys run game on his weekly radio appearance with 105.3 The Fan. He did so fresh off another showcase Monday night by a Baltimore Ravens offense featuring running back Derrick Henry, who was a free agent in the offseason and available for the Cowboys to pursue.
Jones explained on Tuesday why he doesn’t believe that Henry would be a difference-maker for the Cowboys this season.
#Cowboys owner Jerry Jones today on not signing Derrick Henry, via @1053thefan: “Derrick is having a career year. I don’t know if he’d be having a career year in our situation… We don’t run that type of offense at all… Derrick didn’t fit, principally due to managing the cap.” pic.twitter.com/q8QPMB0zRd
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 22, 2024
“We, in my mind, we’re not playing very good football right now, at all,” Jones said. “It’s beyond whether or not we have Derrick Henry or not. Derrick Henry is having a career year.”
Jones then appeared to acknowledge that the Ravens have a superior offensive scheme to the Cowboys.
“I don’t know if he’d be having that career year in our situation,” Jones continued. “And that’s really something you really do have to look at. Because if he had not had as many carries as our running backs have had, then he certainly probably wouldn’t have attained the level of impact that he’s having.
“And then he’s a real good complement to the type of offense that they run. We don’t run that type of offense at all.”
Derrick Henry’s been a bargain in Baltimore
Henry added to his league-best rushing total Monday night with 169 yards in Baltimore’s 41-31 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His third-quarter, 81-yard romp tallied more yards than the Cowboys average on the ground per game.
It contributed to a league-best rushing attack that averages an astonishing 210.9 yards on the ground per game. That’s more than 55 yards per game better than the league’s next best run game boasted by an explosive Lions offense.
Henry signed with the Ravens for two years and $16 million. It’s a relative pittance compared to his production and the value he brings to Baltimore. But because of a league that’s repressed value for even the game’s best running backs in addition to Henry’s advanced age for his position — 30 years old — he signed as one of the biggest bargains of the offseason.
Should the Cowboys have pursued Henry?
The Cowboys, meanwhile, reclaimed Ezekiel Elliott on a one-year contract with $2 million guaranteed. It was an optimistic deal at best for running back who hasn’t averaged more than four yards per carry since 2021 and hasn’t looked like a difference maker since running behind one of the league’s best offensive lines early in his first stint in Dallas.
Elliott joined a backfield featuring Rico Dowdle, who’s never run for more than 361 yards in a single season or averaged more than 4.2 yards per carry. In short, the Cowboys have a couple of dudes running behind an offensive line that no longer resembles one of the league’s best. And it’s showing up on the field.
So, should the Cowboys have pursued Henry in the offseason? Jones explained on Monday that the decision not to was simply a salary cap calculation.
“Now Derrick Henry didn’t fit because principally of managing the cap and anticipation of the players that we were going to sign weeks later or anticipation of players we were going to be signing in the future,” Jones said.
The Cowboys prioritized signing Prescott and Lamb to long-term deals and will face a contract decision with linebacker Micah Parsons next offseason. These are all deals that Dallas should prioritize.
But it’s hard to look at Henry’s production in Baltimore vs. the Cowboys’ season thus far and conclude that Dallas is better off having not pursued Henry for less than $10 million per season.