Don't look now, but the Dallas Cowboys have one of the most prolific rushing attacks in football. Javonte Williams has silenced all of his doubters to the tune of ranking second among running backs with a 65.1 percent rushing success rate and seventh with 61 rushing yards over expected.
While Williams deserves to be the bell cow, it's become painfully obvious that the backfield needs a little bit more juice. Miles Sanders isn't cutting it, and the calls for Jaydon Blue to join the mix have gotten louder.
Despite that, Blue has continued to be a healthy scratch. It seems that Blue is inching closer to making his NFL debut, but Brian Schottenheimer continued to be coy about the situation during a radio hit with 105.3 The Fan.
Cowboys' Jaydon Blue situation still doesn't make any sense
"Jaydon’s actually put together a couple really good weeks of practice," said Schottenheimer. "We challenged him, we talked to him about consistency, working harder on the scout team and things like that, man it’s huge. Give him credit, he’s been terrific. Unfortunately, we’ve been a little bit heavier on the defensive side when you look at the roster construction on game day… in no way, shape or form is Jaydon doing things that would not allow him to be activated, it’s been more of the fact that we’ve needed the numbers with some of the injuries and stuff on defense."
Schottenheimer brought up a good point about the Cowboys catering more toward their defense than their offense on game day. The cornerback room is in disarray, even with DaRon Bland back from his foot injury, and they've shuffled the linebacker and defensive tackle positions as well.
But if Blue is clearing all the requisite benchmarks that are being asked of him, what gives? Sanders has provided almost nothing as a backup. His vision is subpar, which might explain why he seems to bounce every carry outside rather than trust what's developing in front of him.
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No one is saying that Blue is a polished runner between the tackles, but his big-play ability is the perfect complement to Williams, who's been everything Cowboys fans could've asked for and more, but doesn't have breakaway speed. He's a bulldozer, not a sports car.
Blue is the ideal weapon to unleash as Williams' wrecking ball running style wanes on opposing defenses. It's fair to say that Blue's speed is the one thing this offense is missing.
Dak Prescott is playing at an MVP level. The offensive line, while not great in pass protection, is creating serious movement in the run game. And George Pickens has stepped into the WR1 role better than most expected while CeeDee Lamb nurses his ankle sprain.
It sounds like Blue will be active sooner rather than later, but his absence is getting harder to explain with each week that passes and Sanders continues to offer almost zero spark to the offense.