When the Dallas Cowboys signed Javonte Williams to a three-year, $24 million contract extension back in March, it. was hard for anyone to argue the value of the deal. Javonte was coming off the best season of his career, and proved that in the right situation, he was capable of being a quality RB1.
Williams is coming off of the best rushing season for a Cowboys running back since Ezekiel Elliott in 2019, and paying him only $8 million a year is an absolute heist after what we saw last season. And this is the one offseason investment Jerry Jones made that continues to age better and better.
There's one reason the Williams extension keeps offering validation : the running back market continues to increase. The position is undergoing a bit of a renaissance and the league's best backs are starting to reset the market, but by extending him months ago, Dallas got ahead of the 8-ball.
Let's just look at the last week alone. Two of the five best RBs in football got market-altering money. The Atlanta Falcons signed Bijan Robinson to a three-year, $66.75 million extension, and then the Indianapolis Colts turned around and paid Jonathan Taylor $44 million across the next two seasons.
The Dallas Cowboys extended Javonte Williams at the perfect moment
That's not all. The Detroit Lions have just signed Jahmyr Gibbs to a three-year, $67.5 million extension. That's three different players this week alone who had the honor of becoming the highest-paid running back in NFL history and making north of $22 million per year on a new contract.
The running back position is becoming more prevalent now, and the position is starting to hold more value on the market. This isn't the 2010s anymore, when teams were suggested to let star running backs walk.
Think about this. Javonte Williams is coming off of a 1,200-yard, 10 touchdown breakout season. If he were to hit the open market now, he would have made considerably more money. He likely would have asked for over $10 million per year, and they'd have no choice but to meet that asking price.
It's not like the North Carolina product is in the same class as those other guys, but he's still a very solid running back who had bad injury luck before his career revival. So this was a great deal for a good player who's aging phenomenally now.
Thankfully, the Cowboys are not going to have to deal with the ramifications of this new RB market with Javonte Williams. All because Jerry Jones beat the market.
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