See the parts of the article I've highlighted in bold below. Whether it's a trade (AP rumors still won't go away... Mason... Sankey... eventual Ivory/Ridley/Stacy castoff, etc.), free agent (Moreno? Bradshaw? Even old SJAX? etc. ), I think Dallas is still looking for their starter. If they do go into the season with the (cough cough) Big Four of McFadden, Randle, Dunbar, and Williams, I give McFadden about a 1/3 chance of being the larger part of a RBBC. Including the trade/FA possibility still, as of now I give him about a 15% chance of being the larger part of a RBBC, let alone being any kind of feature back. He has never been able to run between the tackles effectively and he isn't going to start now. The OL doesn't matter; he just has poor ability to hit the hole decisively.
Paying good fantasy value for DMC now is a mistake, and if you own him I recommend you find that guy who is buying into the buzz on him and sell high.
http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/2015/05/short-of-unique-situation-cowboys-comfortable-with-their-running-backs.html/
Dallas Cowboys Blog
Cowboys VP: Current group of running backs could change
Jon Machota
IRVING – Despite most believing the Dallas Cowboys would address the running back position early in this year’s draft, they didn’t select one with their eight picks.
As of now, the running back depth chart consists of Darren McFadden, Joseph Randle, Lance Dunbar and Ryan Williams. After the draft, the Cowboys also added rookie free agent Synjyn Days.
“We would have liked to have drafted a running back,” Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. “But at the same token, we didn’t think at any given time that we should pass at the player that was there, even with the running backs [available].”
When last year’s rushing champ DeMarco Murray signed with the Eagles in March, most thought the Cowboys were on track to snag a player like Georgia’s Todd Gurley or Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon in the first round. But both were gone by the time Dallas was drafting at 27.
What about the second round?
Well, even though quality options like Indiana’s Tevin Coleman and Miami’s Duke Johnson were still available at 60, the Cowboys decided to go with Randy Gregory, a pass rusher who many believed was one of the top 10 players in this class.
A later possibility was Boise State’s Jay Ajayi, a player who attended the Cowboys’ Dallas Day event for local prospects. But Dallas passed on him in the third and fourth round before he went to Miami in the fifth.
“Just because this is our current group of running backs doesn’t mean it will stay that way,” Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said. “We are always looking to improve our football team, we will continue to look to improve it, obviously, here with minicamps and OTAs and rookie minicamps and things of that nature.
“We’re going to get to see these guys a lot and
at the same time we’ll keep our eyes wide open and look if there are opportunities to improve, not just at running back but other positions, and we’ll improve the team.”
And then there is Adrian Peterson.
After all of the speculation leading up to the draft about the Cowboys being a potential trade partner for the All-Pro back, Peterson remains in Minnesota, a team that did not draft a running back to possibly replace him.
Is Peterson still an option for the Cowboys?
“I don’t talk about players not on our team,” Stephen Jones said.
But he didn’t close the door on adding another veteran to the mix, mentioning on two occasions how the Patriots acquired LeGarrette Blount late in the season last year.
“Short of it being a unique situation,” Stephen Jones said, “then we’re comfortable where we are.”
Not drafting a running back also leaves the impression that the offensive line is so good that an elite runner isn’t needed.
Jerry Jones said that’s not the message they were trying to send. Instead, they were saying more about the addition of Darren McFadden, the former top 5 pick who signed with the Cowboys after Murray’s departure.
“We didn’t know that McFadden was going to be available when we initially started to think about this year and in our decisions regarding that,” Jerry Jones said. “It might have been a little different story had we not had McFadden on our roster in this draft.”
But in seven seasons with the Raiders, McFadden has appeared in 16 games only once and he has topped the 1,000-yard rushing mark on only one occasion.
“The issue is never resolved,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. “We feel very good about the guys we have on our roster. We feel good about Darren McFadden. We feel good about Joseph Randle, Lance Dunbar, Ryan Williams. But we’re always trying to create competition. Competition with those four guys themselves
but also competition where we can get running backs from other places.
“This is an ongoing process. There will be some teams who have drafted players at certain positions where the guys who are there will all of a sudden become available. I am not suggesting specifically at running back. But we’re going to look at that over the next few days, about what other people do and what the talent landscape looks like and make our best decisions for our team.”
and steadily cruise along. I think Randle is the guy right now. Until something else happens, I don't see how that changes. I would worry a little bit if Moreno or Rice were signed but not a ton. We don't know how much those guys have in the tank.
