{"id":18456,"date":"2025-01-12T01:30:21","date_gmt":"2025-01-12T01:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=18456"},"modified":"2025-01-12T01:30:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-12T01:30:21","slug":"breaking-cowboys-make-surprise-move-to-sign-veteran-free-agent-rb-what-does-it-mean-for-the-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=18456","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;BREAKING: COWBOYS MAKE SURPRISE MOVE TO SIGN VETERAN FREE-AGENT RB\u2014WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE TEAM?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"wp-caption \">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2166375374-e1736624281929.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2166375374-e1736624281929.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2166375374-e1736624281929.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2166375374-e1736624281929.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Cowboys RB Malik Davis\" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" data-img-load-time=\"809\" data-dom-ready-time=\"1316\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\">Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-post-image-caption-text\">Cowboys RB Malik Davis<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"c-content entry-content\">\n<p>It\u2019s been a confounding career in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/dallas-cowboys\/\">Dallas<\/a>\u00a0thus far for running back\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nfl\/player\/malik-davis\/\">Malik Davis<\/a>, who was a high school star at Jesuit High School in the Tampa area before moving on to Florida, where he played five seasons but was never able to really establish himself as a factor for the Gators. He was an All-SEC freshman team honoree, but a knee injury wiped out his next two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Davis has talent, and it was enough to catch the eye of the Cowboys after he went undrafted in 2022. \u00a0He wound up making the practice squad that summer, impressing the staff with his reliability and instincts as a running back. When Rico Dowdle was hurt in his rookie year, Davis was called up to be the No. 3 back for the Cowboys,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/D\/DaviMa02.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">logging 161 yards on 38 attempts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s been the pinnacle of Davis\u2019s career, as he has not gotten much of a chance to impress the team since. Davis appeared in three games in 2023, and though he was on the practice squad last year, he did not play on the 53-man roster at all.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the dearth of usage, though, the Cowboys want to keep Davis on board, and signed him to a futures contract on Friday.<\/p>\n<h2>Malik Davis Will Again Compete for Roster Spot<\/h2>\n<p>Citing a report from Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2 Houston,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/fantasy\/football\/news\/cowboys-malik-davis-staying-in-dallas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">CBS sports noted<\/a>\u00a0that the Cowboys made the move on Davis.<\/p>\n<p>The site added: \u201cDavis spent the entire 2024 regular season on the Cowboys\u2019 practice squad after failing to make the 53-man roster at the end of training camp in late August. He wasn\u2019t elevated to the active roster for a single game, but he\u2019ll stick around in Dallas and participate in offseason training programs to compete for a roster spot for the 2025 campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Cowboys Running Back Spot Needs More Depth<\/h2>\n<p>What the Cowboys do at running back will be one of the top aspects worth watching in the offseason for Dallas. The team made the controversial decision to decline to address the spot in free agency, not making a push for star back\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nfl\/player\/Derrick-Henry\/\">Derrick Henry<\/a>, despite Henry\u2019s professed desire to land in Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the Cowboys brought back free agent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nfl\/player\/Rico-Dowdle\/\">Rico Dowdle<\/a>. The Cowboys doubled down on the running back mistakes by failing to address the position at all in the NFL draft, despite a number of productive backs\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nfl\/player\/bucky-irving\/\">Bucky Irving<\/a>, Braelon Allen among them\u2014who were within the Cowboys\u2019 draft range.<\/p>\n<div id=\"AdThrive_Content_3_desktop\" class=\"adthrive-ad adthrive-content adthrive-content-3 adthrive-ad-cls\" data-google-query-id=\"\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/18190176,25816858\/AdThrive_Content_3\/5ad7479721520f50ab7da88e_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"google-ad-manager-fallback-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>After passing on RBs in the draft, the Cowboys then turned to veteran retread Ezekiel Elliott to fill the role. Elliott, though, was clearly washed up this year and was released late in the season, before signing with the Chargers. Dowdle put forth a quality season (1,079 yards), but needs help.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty Cowboys RB Malik Davis It\u2019s been a confounding career in\u00a0Dallas\u00a0thus far for running back\u00a0Malik Davis, who was a high school star at Jesuit High School in&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-news","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;BREAKING: COWBOYS MAKE SURPRISE MOVE TO SIGN VETERAN FREE-AGENT RB\u2014WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE TEAM?&quot; - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=18456\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;BREAKING: COWBOYS MAKE SURPRISE MOVE TO SIGN VETERAN FREE-AGENT RB\u2014WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE TEAM?&quot; - 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