Don't let the departure of DeMarco Murray and his 2,200 all-purpose-yards or the lack of an adequate or even comparable replacement fool you; the Dallas Cowboys are as committed to running the ball as ever.
Cowboys executive vice president and director player personnel Stephen Jones held a conference call with season ticket holders on Friday and revealed the organization's firm belief that despite Murray's defection to the rival Philadelphia Eagles, they can and will be able to run the ball with great effectiveness next season.
"We didn't put the priority on taking a back that a lot of people may have thought that we might," Jones said, via The Dallas Morning News. "We really feel like with Darren McFadden, Joseph Randle and Lance Dunbar that we have three really good running backs. At the same time, we're not done. Player acquisitions are 365 days a year. We'll continue to look to improve our football team."
He also added that Ryan Williams, who spent last season on the Cowboys practice squad, needs to improve his pass blocking but will "certainly be a factor" moving forward.
"His name actually came up quite a bit [during the draft]," Jones said. "Many times we were looking at backs later in the draft that we compared to Ryan and didn't feel like they were as good as he was."
Still, despite his contentment with what's currently on the Cowboys roster, he wouldn't rule out the potential addition of another back prior to the season, pointing to the New England Patriots, last season's Super Bowl-winner, as a team able to add a valuable asset at a lowered cost later in the process.
"That doesn't mean that we won't be adding a back before we go to camp or during camp or even during the season," Jones said. "I know a team that won a Super Bowl this year, the New England Patriots, that added a back [LeGarrette Blount] at the very end of the season and helped lead them to a Super Bowl. You never know when the right guy is going to be there. We happen to think the right guy may be on our football team as we speak."
