Would Cowboys Signing J.D. McKissic Help Tony Pollard?
FRISCO - The national media continues to push its agenda regarding the Dallas Cowboys running backs room, and hey, those observers may end up being correct. The quintet of backs who are lined up on the depth chart behind Tony Pollard could, once training camp in Oxnard starts, wilt. Or sag. Or fade. Or fail. Or get hurt.
And so the outside-The-Star signing suggestions keep on comin', from Ezekiel Elliott to Kareem Hunt to Leonard Fournette to Cordarrelle Patterson to Kenyon Drake to ... Adrian Peterson?! (Oh, and Dalvin Cook. But we've explained the 26 million reasons why that doesn't work for Dallas.)
This time the focus turns to former Washington Commanders running back J.D McKissic ... and we do admit his sometimes-explosiveness as a versatile weapon is worth some intrigue.
But ... given that he remains a low-tier free agent, why aren't any teams "intrigued''? In Washington, the central reason they're not inviting him back is because the Commanders believe they have four running backs who are better than he is.
So what's so attractive about him in the eyes of the guys at Bleacher Report? It seems they, even as they push the idea, aren't so sure. They note McKissic's "career-bests in almost every category'' ... But they add that those numbers (365 rushing yards and 589 receiving yards) came in 2020. They not that he totaled 609 yards from scrimmage in 2021 in Washington, where his speed made him a contributor. But they follow that up by noting that "a neck issue forced him off the field for the majority of 2022.''
The problems with the idea are many. McKissic is, at 5-10 and 193, a "scatback.'' If Dallas ends up with a running back need - again, because the likes of Malik Davis, Rico Dowdle, Ronald Jones II, Deuce Vaughn and Hunter Luepke all fail in Oxnard - it won't likely be a smallish pass-catcher.
Would McKissic be a far more affordable option? Well, yes. He's mostly been a minimum-wage guy over the course of his career. But along the same lines: The Commanders had him under contract for 2023, but cut him to save $1 million.
So yeah, McKissic is "affordable.'' He's also two other things: He's a 29-year-old running back. And it's not been established that Malik Davis, Rico Dowdle, Ronald Jones II, Deuce Vaughn or Hunter Luepke will fail to match what McKissic's done in the last three years that are being ballyhooed - when they really don't add up to much at all.
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