The Dallas Cowboys have not lived up to expectations thus far this season. And one clear area to point to has been the lack of a rushing game, which could be looking far differently had the team opted to sign star running back Derrick Henry.
Henry was linked to the Cowboys throughout much of the offseason. But instead, the organization opted not to bring him in, instead opting to re-sign Ezekiel Elliott, who has played very little impact on offense this season in Dallas.
Meanwhile, the Ravens decided to bring in Henry, which has paid off immediately with a number of huge performances. Through the first seven weeks of the season, Henry leads the league in rushing by a wide margin.
In retrospect, the decision not to bring in Henry is objectively a bad look for the organization. But Cowboys owner Jerry Jones doesn’t exactly see things that way.
On Tuesday, Jones spoke about Henry’s impressive start to the season, saying that he believes that Henry wouldn’t have the same level of success running behind the Cowboys offensive line.
“In my mind, we’re not playing very good football right now at all,” said Jones. “It’s beyond whether or not we have Derrick Henry right now. Derrick Henry is having a career year. I don’t know if he’d be having that career year in our situation. That’s really something you do have to look at. Because if he had not had as many carries as our running backs have had, he certainly wouldn’t have obtained the level of impact he has had.
“He’s a real good compliment to the type of offense they run. We don’t run that type of offense. Our situation is frankly more about holding your blocks. It’s more about not making mistakes. It’s more about our receivers running on through tough man-to-man coverage.”
Jones likely is correct in his assessment that Henry probably wouldn’t be playing quite as good as he is currently with the Ravens. However, his impact certainly wouldn’t hurt the Cowboys. And chances are, the Cowboys would at least not be the worst rushing team in the NFL like they currently are.
When you have a chance to bring in a player as great as Derrick Henry, you do it and make a change to your system to make him fit. So Jones’ claim that Henry simply “doesn’t fit” within the offense isn’t a great excuse for a clear front-office mistake by the Cowboys.
