Not pursuing Derrick Henry is proving to be costly for the Dallas Cowboys.
It is important to note that we do not know how hypothetical situations would have worked out. They are hypotheticals for a reason, after all.
Had the Dallas Cowboys chosen to sign running back Derrick Henry back in the spring then maybe they would be as successful as he is in the grand scheme of things. Henry woke up as a member of a team with a 2-2 record through four games and perhaps that could be the Cowboys as well. Oh wait.
Seriously though, Henry is clearly off to an amazing start in his maiden voyage with the Baltimore Ravens. At the time of this writing, before Monday night’s doubleheader, Henry leads the league in rushing.
To be clear leading the league in rushing is not the goal of any team but given how the Cowboys offense has looked through four weeks it is undeniable that they could use some help in this capacity. The two seem to be drifting in opposite directions in this sense which only exacerbates fan frustration about a union here not happening when it made sense.
Derrick Henry is outperforming the entire Dallas Cowboys running back room all by himself
In case you did not know, the Dallas Cowboys have 301 rushing yards through the first four games of this season. As we outlined in the historical notes from last week’s win over the New York Giants, this is the fourth-fewest amount of rushing yards Dallas has accumulated through any season’s first four games. The shorter way of saying that is that the Cowboys have only been worse than what they are now on three occasions in all of franchise history.
Here is every Dallas Cowboys running back and what they have done through four weeks:
- Rico Dowdle: 34 carries, 134 yards, 3.9 YPC, 0 touchdowns
- Ezekiel Elliott: 24 carries, 81 yards, 3.4 YPC, 1 touchdown
- Deuce Vaughn; 7 carries, 20 yards, 2.9 YPC, 0 touchdowns
Expanding to more advanced statistics does the group no favors:
- Rico Dowdle: -26 RYOE, -0.6 Rush EPA, 1 run of 10+ yards
- Ezekiel Elliott: -20 RYOE, -4.4 Rush EPA, 0 runs of 10+ yards
- Deuce Vaughn: -17 RYOE, -2.1 Rush EPA, 0 runs of 10+ yards
You did not need basic or advanced information to know that this running back group is struggling. We talked a few weeks ago about how they were among the most inefficient in the entire NFL and that remains true, unfortunately.
It is for this overall reason that people cannot seem to easily forget Derrick Henry. Jerry Jones said after Baltimore trounced Dallas that the Cowboys “could not afford” Derrick Henry, a notion that anyone with access to the internet these days can easily disprove.
Adding frustration to this whole saga is that Henry was seemingly interested in playing for the Cowboys when he was a free agent. Dallas very infamously did not call and here we are.
Here are Derrick Henry’s numbers through the first four weeks of the season:
- 80 carries
- 480 yards
- 6.0 YPC
- 5 rushing touchdowns
- +185 RYOE
- +14.1 Rush EPA
- 10 runs of 10+ yards
Henry’s season so far doesn’t seem real. Among the most logical explanations is that the sport of football is finding a way to embarrass the Cowboys specifically for not doing their due diligence on the matter.
As noted up top it is hard to say that Henry would be experiencing as much individual success with the Cowboys as he current is with the Ravens, but one thing is and has been for certain for a long time now.
The group that Dallas assembled here never inspired confidence and was always going to be swimming upstream. That it is offering relatively no help to the overall offense is among the least shocking developments from the season so far.
