NFL Draft insider provides insight about Ashton Jeanty that almost feels like a warning for the Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys and Ashton Jeanty have become almost synonymous during this year's NFL Draft process. It's a match (seemingly) made in heaven. New head coach Brian Schottenheimer is adamant on "running the damn ball" and Rico Dowdle is headed to free agency. The Cowboys had a first-row seat to Saquon Barkley lighting up the year […]
The Dallas Cowboys and Ashton Jeanty have become almost synonymous during this year's NFL Draft process. It's a match (seemingly) made in heaven.
New head coach Brian Schottenheimer is adamant on "running the damn ball" and Rico Dowdle is headed to free agency. The Cowboys had a first-row seat to Saquon Barkley lighting up the year and after a year in which they regretted their "running back by committee approach halfway through the season, the temptation might be too high for them to pass on Jeanty.
And hey, Jeanty is a Boise State product. The Cowboys have not been shy about their love for the college football Broncos in the past.
However, drafting Jeanty as high as No. 12 might be something no other NFL team is willing to do. Other than the Cowboys, there might not be a franchise willing to pick him in the Top 20, according to The Athletic's draft insider Dane Brugler.
"If the Cowboys don't draft him at 12, it's just hard to find a landing spot in the top 20 picks," Brugler said on The Athletic Football Show. "So, I would lean towards Jeanty being talked about going later as opposed to earlier.
No one will question Jeanty's play after he ended the season as the runner up for the Heisman Trophy, which he lost to Colorado's Travis Hunter. But Jeanty is the latest victim of the RB value conversation.
"It's so tough because this goes back to kind of the Bijan Robinson conversation, where it was so hard to do a mock draft with Bijan Robinson because there was not a clear place to put him. (. . .) And so with Jeanty, it’s kind of a similar thing in the top 20 picks, where, yeah, the Cowboys—it kind of makes sense, it fits for a lot of different reasons. But is there any other team in the top 20 that you can maybe talk yourself into?"
The above is very telling insight about the view of NFL teams on the value of running backs but it also almost feels like a warning for the Cowboys. If they're the only team in the top 20 that makes sense for Jeanty and vice versa, why is that? It's something the front office should at least ask itself.
The running back value debate in the NFL world has been highly controversial but that's because it's often misunderstood. In the context of a football game, it obviously matters. Having a better player matters. Duh. However, the debate is more about resource allocation and opportunity cost. If you spend a premium asset (like the No. 12 overall pick) on a running back, what are you passing on? A tackle? A wide receiver? Which is harder to get later on?
Across the league, NFL teams are spending less on running backs and passing on them in the first round of the Draft. But there are exceptions, such as Bijan, who went eighth overall when the Atlanta Falcons picked him. The challenge is figuring out who should be an exception and who shouldn't.
"I just don’t see a lot of landing spots (for Jeanty)," Brugler added. "And so, could we see a Denver trade up and get him? Or a Washington trade up and get him? Sure, I think that’s definitely on the table. But as much as—we mentioned with tight ends how being a loaded class might hurt the tight ends at the top—that could be true for running back as well."
If the Cowboys believe they can get a starting-caliber running back, or at least someone they can rotate with Dowdle should they re-sign him, would they prefer to add a legit WR at 12, for example? Maybe an offensive lineman to compete with Brock Hoffman, Terence Steele, and/or Tyler Guyton? If there's a premium defender that can make a big impact unlike the one they'd get from a Day 2 player, would they rather tap into that value?
That's the big Ashton Jeanty question. And based on Brugler's comments, it's one most NFL teams have answered one way. Will the Cowboys go against the current?
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