Why the Cowboys need to mirror Seahawks' approach at one critical spot

The Dallas Cowboys have a ton of work to do this offseason if they want to be a contender in the NFC. The conference is as loaded as ever, and the Cowboys will need to nail free agency and the draft if they want to have any hope of just getting back to the postseason.

Dallas would be wise to look at how the Seattle Seahawks built their roster, especially considering how fast they rebuilt their team.

While it would be foolish to copy their blueprint entirely, there are some things that can be gleaned from their magical run to a Lombardi Trophy. And one part of that rebuild was how they handled the running back situation.

The Dallas Cowboys would be wise to pass on paying big money for RB

One of the most convincing trends over the 12 Super Bowls is how teams manage the running back position and the cap. Since 2014, no running back has accounted for more than 1.5% of a team’s respective salary cap during that Super Bowl-winning season. In fact, eight of the 12 leading running backs for the Super Bowl-winning team accounted for less than 1.0% of the team’s cap that season.

The last running back to have a cap hit of more than 1.5% was Marshawn Lynch during the 2013 season and his number was an astonishing 6.2%. But since then, we’ve seen a long list of teams who won the Super Bowl (and those who fell one game short) limit the amount of cap space used on the position.

Admittedly, cap hit percentage isn’t the best way to judge a running back’s value on the cap, but it’s the best way to easily display it. And whether you use cash paid, base salary, cap hit, or whatever metric, you can make the same conclusion: paying a running back a ton of money isn’t a wise way to build a Super Bowl champion.

We just saw the Seahawks win a Super Bowl behind Kenneth Walker, a second-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. There is no arguing that Walker is a good player, but he's never been viewed as an elite running back in the same tier as Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs, Christian McCaffrey, etc. But he was productive and, maybe more importantly, cheap. He accounted for just 0.9% of Seattle's cap space in 2025, which allowed them to spend more money on free agents, such as Demarcus Lawrence.

We've also seen that, over the last 16 Super Bowl winners, only one leading running back was selected in Round 1 by that team: Sony Michel by the 2018 New England Patriots. Michel was the No. 31 pick in that draft and was a part-time player for Seattle. Saquon Barkley and Leonard Fournette were both former first-round picks, but they won Super Bowls after departing their former teams.

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Drafting a running back in Round 1 and especially inside the top-12 picks can be risky. And while Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson have been awesome players in the NFL, it hasn't translated to Super Bowl success. And that's not their fault, but teams should be attacking high-value positions with those picks, much like Seattle did with Devon Witherspoon and Byron Murphy. Those positions tend to have a greater impact on winning and provide more cap value/savings than an elite running back.

So how does this relate to the Dallas Cowboys in 2026? Well, their starting running back (Javonte Williams) is set to become a free agent and Dallas has to make a decision on him. Williams was one of the NFL’s best running backs in 2025, but he’s expected to be more expensive this time around.

The Cowboys already have one of the league’s highest-paid offenses, and they are only going to become more expensive with George Pickens set to earn a new contract. Not to mention, we will also see an increase in Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Tyler Smith, and Jake Ferguson’s contracts in 2026.

That’s not to say that the Cowboys shouldn’t pay Williams, but they need to be responsible in how they do so. The 2026 cap is expected to be set at 303,500,000 and if the Cowboys want to stay under 1% of the cap for their top running back, that means Williams would need to earn no more than $3.5 million in 2026. That’s probably not realistic considering the type of season he had in 2025, but that is the contract he signed last offseason with Dallas.

If the Cowboys wanted to give Williams a raise, a contract of $4.5 million per season would account for 1.5% of the team’s cap in 2026. But again, that might not be a number that makes sense for Williams. His current market is $7.3M, according to Spotrac, and that would account for about 2.5% of the Cowboys' 2026 cap space.

In the grand scheme of things, the difference in $4.5M/year and let’s say $7.5M/year isn’t that big of a deal. But with the Cowboys (currently) being tight up against the cap, every decision is going to matter. Can they justify spending even more money on offense? Or should they draft-and-develop a running back and use that cap space on defense?

It’s a worthwhile debate, and no one should overreact too much if Williams does earn a market value deal from Dallas. But the recent trends among Super Bowl winners show a pretty clear path to success for building a championship-caliber roster.

After hitting on Williams in free agency last year, it’ll be fascinating to see if the Cowboys revisit the cheap running back philosophy or if they decide to pay up for a more proven asset.