One thing we already know about Dallas Cowboys head coach/offensive play-caller Brian Schottenheimer is that he wants to run the ball in 2025.
After seeing Rico Dowdle toil away for half a season as part of a running back by committee, once Rico was handed the keys, he flourished, surpassing 1,000 rushing yards.
Schottenheimer’s time with the Seattle Seahawks as offensive coordinator (2018, 19, and 20) saw the offense be top-10 in points, second in rush attempts and first in yards (2018), third in attempts, and fourth in yards (2019), and then fourth in yards (2020) before a drop-off in 2020.
So we know Schotty wants to run the ball and then lean on the play-action game off of that. This brings us to the draft and Dallas’ No. 12 pick. With so many options and, in truth, many holes that need filling, NFL.com has Boise State star Ashton Jeanty coming to the Cowboys.
“After watching the ground game flounder without an elite running back in the backfield, Jerry Jones adds a bona fide star in Jeanty to spark an offensive resurgence,” NFL.com writes.
We have seen what such an impact Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry made on their respective teams, and the Cowboys, after a poor season running the football, could look to Jeanty to get some much-needed juice in the run game.
Is Jeanty “The Next Saquon”?
Of course there are other needs such as a foil for CeeDee Lamb at receiver, plus defensive lineman and anything else you can think of.
But with Schottenheimer’s want to run the ball, maybe it is Jeanty who goes in the first round, if not, North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton or Arizona State’s Cameron Skattebo in the later rounds.
However one thing is for sure, the Cowboys will be hoping to be a vastly improved team running the football in 2025 and the draft might be key in making that happen.
