Well, that’s a wrap. The Cowboys have finished off their 2024 preseason and have, unfortunately, left many questions still unanswered. Star receiver CeeDee Lamb is still a holdout. Quarterback and MVP candidate Dak Prescott does not have a new contract and could be careening toward 2025 free agency. And we still have no clue what the Cowboys’ ground game will look like in the coming months.
Maybe we do—it will be a committee, which means it probably won’t be all that effective. Three preseason games gave us no clarity on how that committee will shake out, with the finale against the Chargers not doing much to solidify the picture.
Ezekiel Elliott will be grandfathered into the RB1 role because of his history with the Cowboys. Rico Dowdle showed promise last year and could eat into Elliott’s carries as the season goes on. After that? Malik Davis, Deuce Vaughn, Royce Freeman, Snoop Conner and Nathaniel Peat all got carries on Saturday.
It’s likely that two from that group, plus fullback Hunter Luepke, will remain on the 53-man roster. Conner and Peat are probably headed to the practice squad, if they stay in Dallas at all. And, from the perspective of ESPN, the guy tabbed to be the odd man out will be free-agent signee Royce Freeman, who tallied eight carries for 35 yards against the Chargers.
Cowboys Predicted to Keep Malik Davis, Deuce Vaughn
Shortly after the end of the Chargers-Cowboys game, ESPN’s Cowboys beat man Todd Archer predicted the 53-man roster, and had the special teams/excitability aspects of Davis and Vaughn being just enough to help them beat out Freeman for a spot on the roster.
“Veteran Royce Freeman gets caught in a numbers game here. He is similar in style to Elliott, so the replication of skills isn’t needed as much. Davis has had an excellent summer and can be a core special-teamer. It’s on the coaches to come up with a package for Vaughn to make his roster spot worth it,” Archer wrote.
Indeed, the fourth spot will come down to Freeman, a traditional bruiser of a back with a style similar to that of today’s Elliott, and Vaughn, the diminutive (5-foot-5) scatback who can ignite plays in the preseason but who might well be too small to warrant a week-to-week role on this roster.
Royce Freeman had Stephen Jones’ Backing
Freeman is 28 years old and has six years of experience behind him. His best season came as a rookie, when he rushed for 521 yards in 14 games for the Broncos. Last season, he was a reserve for the Rams, and put up 319 yards on 77 carries.
Last month, team VP Stephen Jones seemed enthralled with Freeman, as he spoke with 105.3 “The Fan” in Dallas.
“That Freeman guy has really impressed,” Jones said, via the Dallas Morning News. “We were just talking about it [Sunday] at the scout dinner. ‘What in the hell was he doing sitting around out there?’ An interesting guy to just have been sitting there.”
Jones indicated he thought Freeman would be on the final roster.
“He’s a great two-three combination in terms of what he can do as a backup,” Jones said. “He’s a big, thick guy. And he’s a hell of a special teams player as well. He’ll be a good addition and great complement to [Ezekiel Elliott]. And then we’ll let these young guys between [Rico Dowdle and Malik Davis] and those guys [will] battle it out.”
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