Dallas Cowboys missed out on great bargain in Chris Johnson

As with any 2-5 NFL team, the glaring mistakes made by the Dallas Cowboys’ front office prior to this season are starting to become clear. By neglecting to add a veteran wide receiver or upgrade the situation at backup quarterback the team left itself vulnerable if injury occurred as it has.

However, the biggest mistake the Dallas Cowboys made was paying no attention to a former All-Pro running back that was begging for Dallas to simply give him a look back in May. This player used social and traditional media to try to gain the attention of the Dallas Cowboys but to no avail. Link

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When looking at the list of the NFL’s leading rushers through the first half of the season, one doesn’t have to travel far down the list to find the name of the Arizona Cardinals’ running back Chris Johnson. He trails only Devonta Freeman of the Atlanta Falcons in rushing yards this season with 676 (Freeman has 709).

And with Tuesday’s news that the Cowboys released the team’s week one starting running back Joseph Randle after multiple off field issues, the thought of missing out on Johnson stings a bit more.

Now, to be fair, Johnson was not a heavily sought after free agent after a disappointing 2014 with the New York Jets. Johnson did not sign with Arizona until August 17^th, almost a month into training camp meaning that almost every team in the league could have signed him on the cheap.

Despite rushing for over 1,000 yards in six of his seven NFL seasons, including 2,006 yards in the 2009 campaign, most NFL personnel executives thought that the 30-year-old back was on the decline.

Instead, Dallas decided to sign veteran running back Darren McFadden, who is two years Johnson’s junior but who also has gained 4,712 fewer yards in his career. The refrain echoing all season from Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters was that the trio of Randle, McFadden and Lance Dunbar would be able to make up for most of the 1,845 yards the team lost when 2014 NFL rushing champion DeMarco Murray signed with the Philadelphia Eagles.

At the time, no one knew that the Cowboys would play almost half of the season without quarterback Tony Romo and wide receiver Dez Bryant making the ground game even more crucial for the Cowboys’ Super Bowl dream. But if owner and general manager Jerry Jones had known he’d lose Romo and Bryant, do you think he would have done anything different? Me neither.

Now, in the spirit of transparency, I wrote a piece on this very site discussing why Dallas should not sign Johnson, which is why I am not an NFL general manager.

But I wish that the men running my favorite team had done their due diligence and been at least willing to take a look at Johnson. He could have been just enough to keep Dallas afloat during Romo’s seven-game absence.

Since seeing Romo leave the Philadelphia game in week 2 with a broken collarbone, Dallas has had the least explosive offense in football. Johnson could have helped in that area.

Thus far in 2015, Johnson has runs of 62, 40, 30 and 21 yards. In the meantime, McFadden’s longest run is 22 yards while Randle’s is 37.

Johnson has also been a workhorse this year. He has carried the ball 17.6 times per game including 30 times in last week’s victory over the Cleveland Browns. His yards per carry average of 4.8 is good for 11^th in the league but keep in mind that he has over 100 more attempts than Todd Gurley of the St. Louis Rams who leads the NFL with 6.12 yards per attempt.

In comparison, McFadden is averaging only 12.2 carries per game (a number that has been increasing since his 29 carry game against the New York Giants in week 7 and will likely continue to climb with the release of Randle) with a respectable 4.0 yards per carry.

Randle was averaging 10.8 yards per game and 4.1 yards per attempt. As a duo, the Cowboys’ two main running backs averaged 23 carries per game and 4.5 yards per carry, numbers that don’t add up to Johnson’s.

For further perspective, consider that DeMarco Murray is 42^nd in the NFL in yards per carry at 3.49 and coincidentally also 42^nd in rushing yards at 307; far from the production Johnson has given Arizona.

Ultimately, the Cardinals took a chance and signed Johnson to a one-year deal worth just over $700,000 with up to $1.3 million in incentives. Meanwhile, McFadden is signed to a two-year deal that could cost up to $5.85 million.

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While many can point to factors that have given us the rushing stats for these players, it is hard to imagine that Dallas would not have been better off by signing a former All-Pro running back that was openly begging the team to simply give him a look.

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