For as second consecutive offseason, the Cowboys have come up short in making a splash in free agency. While they managed to bring back DT Osa Odighizuwa to a huge four-year, $80 million deal, that was pretty much their only splash.
Now Cowboys fans will have to look forward to the NFL Draft in hopes that Dallas will draft well and deliver a strong rookie class. With having ten picks to use, there should be absolutely no excuse as to why Dallas can’t bring in a lot of talent on both sides of the ball.
Last season, the Cowboys were heavily criticized for their lack of pursuit of a top running back like Derrick Henry. However, they managed to have Rico Dowdle produce nicely with over 1,000 yards on the ground but he will now take his talents to the Carolina Panthers.
The Cowboys did bring in Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders in free agency, but that just simply won’t fix the run game for Dak Prescott. Instead, the Cowboys should be focusing in on a certain running back prospect who can take over the young Ezekiel Elliott role in Dallas.
Cowboys find their next Ezekiel Elliott in NFL mock draft
NFL Spin Zone’s Sayre Bedinger produced a recent 4-round mock draft that Cowboys fans can be super excited about. Bedinger has the Cowboys drafting North Carolina running back Omarion Hampton at No. 12 overall.
“The Dallas Cowboys already brought in two free agent running backs this offseason, which might be our indicator that Jerry Jones is not going to use a first-round pick at this position. But this is a rare running back class, and we all just saw the type of impact running backs had around the league this past year.”
Sayre Bedinger, NFL Spin Zone
Omarion Hampton would be a fantastic lights-out pick for Cowboys
Hampton has been beyond productive the last two years with the Tar Heels, rushing for 3,164 yards and 30 touchdowns. North Carolina focused their offense on Hampton, giving him no less than 253 carries the last two seasons. This has Ohio State Ezekiel Elliott written all over this pick.
Just like Hampton, Elliott was highly productive in his last two years at Ohio State, rushing for over 1,800+ yards and 41 touchdowns in that time. The Cowboys ended up selecting Elliott 4th overall in 2016 and it paid off for them early on his career. Without him, the Cowboys wouldn’t have had the success that they did when Elliott was on his rookie deal.
Now that we are slowly going back to an era where running backs are more valuable than we thought, it would be absolutely foolish for the Cowboys to willingly pass on Hampton if he is available by the time they are on the clock.
