Cowboys EVP and director of player personnel Stephen Jones doesn’t think so, despite Dallas only getting a combined 94 yards from their running backs through the first two games of the 2026 season.
That wasn’t much of a hindrance for the Cowboys offense against Washington, not with Dak Prescott throwing for four touchdowns on a nearly perfect 26-for-31 passing. But he’s averaging over 30 passing attempts per game — how sustainable will that be later into the season, for both Prescott and his offensive line?
Here’s what he had to say.
Question: One caveat to [Sunday’s win] is: What is your concern level about the first couple of weeks in the run game? Because even though points are being scored, the run game has been relatively non-existent thus far.
Jones: “Yeah, you know, I think the bigger thing is that defenses have to pick their poison. I still think that the Giants game was not our best game in any of the three phases, [and] I think certainly I gotta give Dan Quinn credit. They came in here and wanted to stop the run and make [our offense] one-dimensional.
“And, you know, we took what they gave us. Later as the game went, obviously, Javonte started ripping off some big runs. Unfortunately we had a big one called back, it would’ve been 30 or 40 more yards.
“But at the same time, I do think this offense, if you’re trying to defend it, you gotta pick what you’re gonna stop. And certainly if they want to give us the pass, Dak throwing the ball and the weapons we have catching it — obviously CeeDee [Lamb] had an amazing game yesterday, George Pickens capable of the same thing, certainly [Jake] Ferguson had a big day with his production, [Ryan Flournoy] chipped in — those are like handoffs for No. 4, so. We’ll take what they give us.
“I know there’s gonna be days where Javonte has big, big days when they’re trying to slow the passing game down. So I don’t have a lot of concern, I think T.J. [Bass] has done a great job for us. When Tyler Smith gets back, that will only help the running game. It’ll help all phases, but in particular the running game. And we just feel really good about where we’re headed there.”