The Super Bowl is over, and it is officially Mock Draft season. Everybody and their cousin is blogging or podcasting about what college players are going to go to what teams in the 2025 NFL Draft. Free Agency hasn’t happened, the combine hasn’t happened, and pro days are not on the horizon, so it’s impossible to know or even have a legitimate idea how teams will pick.
That won’t stop football fans from clicking on these ridiculous and baseless speculation filled articles billions of times before April. It seems like every major outlet has different opinions about the draft order, but there’s one thing they all seem to agree on. The Dallas Cowboys are going to take Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty with the 12th overall pick. Experts like Jacob Camenker at USA Today to Stadium Rant’s Gerard Turner have America’s Team going this route.
The reality is, there is no way that the Cowboys are using such a high pick on Jeanty. There are a number of reasons this would make no sense at all. Here are three of them.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is a lot of things. Annoying, meddlesome, arrogant, and greedy. One thing he isn’t is dumb. Jones might be the best drafting general manager in the game today. There aren’t many busts he’s selected over the years, and the guys he does pick produce at a high level. The last thing he’s going to do is make a mistake in the 2025 Draft, and there’s no bigger mistake than picking a running back in round one.
This isn’t 1990 anymore. Running back is a disposable position. It’s like toilet paper or tissues. One use, and they get thrown away. Nobody pays bath towel prices for a roll of Brawny, and Jones won’t do that either. As great a college player as Jeanty might be, in terms of draft value, the position he plays is ranked barely above punter. Ball carriers should be taken in round two at the earliest.
This year’s running back class has some solid options in later rounds. Omarion Hampton will likely be the second RB off the board, and that could be at 44 when the Cowboys pick in round two. This pick would save the team $2.5 million per year, and they’d likely get similar production from Hampton as they would from Jeanty. The list of quality running backs extends into later rounds as well.
Arizona State RB Cam Skattebo looked unstoppable, especially late in the year, and could be available early in round three. TreVeyon Henderson from Ohio State and Trevor Etienne from Georgia won’t be far behind. Thanks to a horrible season, last year’s pre-season Heisman favorite Ollie Gordon II will be a late round steal for someone (barring him balling out at the Combine). There are a number of options available, and they will all be there after round one.
It was a disappointing season for the Cowboys, who went 7-10 and finished just ahead of the New York Giants in the NFC East. The biggest reason for their struggles was not the running game, as Rico Dowdle topped over 1,000 yards on the season (averaging 4.6 yards per carry). He is hitting free agency, and backup Deuce Vaughn only had 17 carries last year, so it is an area of need, but not the biggest.
Dallas was horrendous against the pass last year. They ranked 24th in passing touchdowns allowed with 28, and they allowed the fifth-highest passer rating in the league (99.5). This wasn’t the result of the defensive line. Micah Parsons and company got after the quarterback, but the overhyped secondary allowed reception after reception. Daron Bland becomes a UFA after 2025, and he didn’t do anything to earn a long term deal last season. Will Johnson from Michigan would be a much better pick here than Jeanty.
Five of the Cowboys’ front seven are hitting free agency, and the team is projected to be over the cap when free agency starts. They can’t afford to bring any of them back on decent-sized deals, so those holes need to be filled in the draft. Pass rusher isn’t exactly a position teams should wait until round five to address. Walter Nolan from Ole Miss, Mykel Williams from Georgia, or Kenneth Grant from Michigan are better choices at 12 than Jeanty.
Anything can happen on draft day. Teams move up, teams move down, and guys like Tim Tebow can end up in round one. The Cowboys could defy all logic, and make the wrong choice, but the odds are against that. Mocking Jeanty to Dallas is popular and therefore lazy. It’s highly unlikely to happen, but then again, it won’t be the craziest thing ever seen during the Draft.
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