It's fun when Cowboys executives share their thoughts on players. Sometimes it's interesting, sometimes it's helpful to other teams (like when Jerry Jones talked up Jonathon Brooks before the draft), and sometimes they knock their own players without fully realizing it.
Yesterday Executive VP Stephen Jones was talking about the team's running backs, specifically free-agent signing (and former Ram) Royce Freeman (pictured). "We were just talking about it last night at the scout dinner, ‘What in the hell was he doing sitting around out there?’ He’s a great 2-3 combination in terms of what he can do as a backup. He’s a big, thick guy. He’ll be a good addition and great complement to (Ezekiel Elliott). And then we’ll let these young guys between (Rico Dowdle and Malik Davis) and those guys battle it out.”
Dowdle was the No. 2 behind Tony Pollard a year ago, and Pollard is gone, so many sort of assumed Dowdle would get first crack to replace him. Even after the team brought back Ezekiel Elliott, and signed Freeman. But depending on how you want to interpret Jones' words -- and certainly Mike McCarthy might have different ideas -- it sounds a lot like Zeke is the favorite to start, Freeman is in line to be the No. 2, and Dowdle is vying to be the No. 3 or at best the No. 2, as he's been his entire career.
The reality is that Dowdle has been in the league four seasons without ever making any kind of impact. He's just two years younger than the 28-year-old Freeman (even Elliott just turned 29, old but not exactly senile).
Given Jones' words, it's reasonable to take a look at Freeman. He's a little more appealing, I think, than you might expect.
A former Denver third-rounder, Freeman is a big guy (6-0, 238) who actually started as a rookie, at one point punching in touchdowns in three straight games. He spent most of his three years in Denver in a committee, averaging a modest 4.0 per attempt. Since then he's bounced around, playing for Houston, Carolina (very briefly) and then the Rams last season. That caught the Cowboys' interest.
When Kyren Williams was hurt midseason, Freeman played in a committee with Darrell Henderson. He was a lot more effective, so much so that when Williams returned, Henderson was sent packing and Freeman was kept around as part of the rotation, which also included Ronnie Rivers. But Freeman made the most of the chances he got.
In a five-game stretch (first with Henderson, then Williams), Freeman averaged 13 carries for 58 yards, with 2 TDs. He averaged 4.6 yards per attempt in those contests. Projected out over a full season, he would have fallen just short of 1,000 rushing yards.
| ROYCE FREEMAN, WEEKS 7-12 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Att | Yds | Avg | TD |
| Pit. | 12 | 66 | 5.5 | 0 |
| at Dal. | 9 | 44 | 4.9 | 1 |
| at G.B. | 12 | 32 | 2.7 | 0 |
| Sea. | 17 | 73 | 4.3 | 0 |
| at Ari. | 13 | 77 | 5.9 | 1 |
| Avg | 13 | 58 | 4.6 | 0.4 |
| Proj. | 214 | 993 | 4.6 | 7 |
The Rams didn't use Freeman in the passing game. At all: just 1 pass thrown his way in any of those five games, which was incomplete. But he doesn't seem incapable; he had a 43-catch season with Denver, catching about 80 percent of the passes thrown his way with the Broncos. He won't be Tony Pollard, but he doesn't seem useless, should he find his way into the lineup.
Jones isn't coaching the Cowboys (I don't think), so his words might well be out of sync with McCarthy's plans. But a reasonable takeaway here is to tread very carefully drafting Dowdle. The range of possibilities includes him not even making the roster, with Elliott, Freeman and second-year runner Deuce Vaughn also in the mix. And at a minimum, it's fair to wonder if Freeman is more worthy of a last-round pick than Dowdle is of an earlier one. That's how I'll be drafting, anyway.
--Andy Richardson