I'd be tempted to take Mark Ingram

[Awakened]

I think he is going to be a big-time NFL RB. We may regret it if we pass him up.

 

[AZ_Cowboys_Fan]

I think he is going to be a big-time NFL RB. We may regret it if we pass him up.

I wouldn't be against it *IF* I know for sure that we address the o-line through free agency. Ingram and Felix would be a sweet combo. I am a big believer that you should take the best player on the board regardless of need.

 

[realtick]

I wouldn't think twice about passing him and I like him.

 

[TheCoolFan]

Pass. Nothing against him but in today's NFL, you can win a Super Bowl without having a superstar RB. The last SB winner that had a great RB was probably the Ravens with Jamal Lewis or the Rams with Faulk. We have bigger holes to fill

2009 - Saints: Pierre Thomas/Reggie Bush
2008 - Steelers: Willie Parker/Rashad Mendenhall
2007 - Giants: Brandon Jacobs/Derrick Ward/Ahmad Bradshaw
2006 - Colts: Joseph Addai/Dominic Rhodes
2005 - Steelers: Willie Parker/Jerome Bettis
2004 - Pats: Corey Dillon
2003 - Pats: Kevin Faulk/Antowain Smith
2002 - Bucs: Michael Pittman/Mike Alstott
2001 - Pats: Antowain Smith

 

[Nirvana]

No thanks

 

[TNCowboy]

He's a fine RB, but RBs don't last long, and are easy to find. Only in extremely rare cases is an RB worthy of a high pick.

 

[Randy White]

I think he is going to be a big-time NFL RB. We may regret it if we pass him up.

I've been thinking about that quite a bit for the past few weeks. If I were in charge of the Cowboys, the option of picking this guy would be keeping me awake at night, probably all the way to the draft.

Call it black magic, voodoo, vision, dream, whatever, but every time I see him or somebody mentions his name, Emmitt Smith comes to mind. The parallels are just stunning. He's done absolutely nothing wrong and yet his stock has dropped into the 20's. Same as " that other guy ". He's got powerful legs, deceptive quickness, does not shy away from contact, but defenders don't seem to get a square hit on him, catches the ball very well, and all he does is produce.

The thing, though, is that we would have to blow up our entire backfield and almost change completely on offense. We'd have to move T.Choice or F.Jones, or both, make sure Gronko is the FB we want or get one who's suitable to be a lead blocker ( the kid from Stanford would be perfect ), we'd have to, obviously, improve the O-line inside, and the most difficult part is that we'd have to take away the focus of the offense from Tony and put it squarely on Ingram.

In other words, we'd have to go back to the '90's and revive that offense again.

Otherwise, we'd be doing Ingram a disservice.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

I like Ingram, but would pass. Felix given an offseason of work with the #1 offense and a quality o-line, can push for 2000 total yards imo (1300 yards rushing and 700 yards recieving). Tashard Choice is a good change of pace back/goal line runner so I'd actually be fine with bringing in an UDFA to be the #3 RB.

 

[DFWJC]

Pass. Nothing against him but in today's NFL, you can win a Super Bowl without having a superstar RB. The last SB winner that had a great RB was probably the Ravens with Jamal Lewis or the Rams with Faulk. We have bigger holes to fill

2009 - Saints: Pierre Thomas/Reggie Bush
2008 - Steelers: Willie Parker/Rashad Mendenhall
2007 - Giants: Brandon Jacobs/Derrick Ward/Ahmad Bradshaw
2006 - Colts: Joseph Addai/Dominic Rhodes
2005 - Steelers: Willie Parker/Jerome Bettis
2004 - Pats: Corey Dillon
2003 - Pats: Kevin Faulk/Antowain Smith
2002 - Bucs: Michael Pittman/Mike Alstott
2001 - Pats: Antowain Smith

That's good stuff. Nice post.

Although I do think most of those RBs made the Pro Bowl at some point (so there were some very good backs) few were 1st rounders and some were taken very late in the draft or not at all.

 

[Doomsday101]

I think that is a luxury pick the Cowboys need to avoid given holes we need to fill. I think we have the offensive weapons now we need to put a line in front of them to get the most out of them.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I've been thinking about that quite a bit for the past few weeks. If I were in charge of the Cowboys, the option of picking this guy would be keeping me awake at night, probably all the way to the draft.

Call it black magic, voodoo, vision, dream, whatever, but every time I see him or somebody mentions his name, Emmitt Smith comes to mind. The parallels are just stunning. He's done absolutely nothing wrong and yet his stock has dropped into the 20's. Same as " that other guy ". He's got powerful legs, deceptive quickness, does not shy away from contact, but defenders don't seem to get a square hit on him, catches the ball very well, and all he does is produce.

The thing, though, is that we would have to blow up our entire backfield and almost change completely on offense. We'd have to move T.Choice or F.Jones, or both, make sure Gronko is the FB we want or get one who's suitable to be a lead blocker ( the kid from Stanford would be perfect ), we'd have to, obviously, improve the O-line inside, and the most difficult part is that we'd have to take away the focus of the offense from Tony and put it squarely on Ingram.

In other words, we'd have to go back to the '90's and revive that offense again.

Otherwise, we'd be doing Ingram a disservice.

I have exactly the same thoughts on this player RW. I don't honestly know that if no trade down were available and that if he were the best player on my board, I would not draft him. I don't love our backfield right now. I don't really see Choice as the every down back. I don't see Jones as that either, at the moment. I really do like Ingram.

I don't know. I'm in favor of drafting OLs, DLs, ILBs and DBs but this guy might be there. I don't know.

 

[aikemirv]

Jones and Choice are more than capable. When the 2 best RB's in the league don't make a difference for their teams, I just don't see the value for them that early ( and I am talking about Johnson and Peterson)

 

[TheCount]

RB's are one position you definitely don't need to spend a first round pick on, we already did that with Felix and so far it hasn't done us much good.

 

[DFWJC]

I have exactly the same thoughts on this player RW. I don't honestly know that if no trade down were available and that if he were the best player on my board, I would not draft him. I don't love our backfield right now. I don't really see Choice as the every down back. I don't see Jones as that either, at the moment. I really do like Ingram.

I don't know. I'm in favor of drafting OLs, DLs, ILBs and DBs but this guy might be there. I don't know.

I'm kind of in that camp too about our backfield. I'm just not sure if I would want to address it with Ingram if it had to be in the 1st round. You may want to look at his stats too: for the most part he had average or poor games (<3.9 ypc) against the top 3-4 SEC teams. I do like him though.

 

[Doomsday101]

I'm kind of in that camp too about our backfield. I'm just not sure i would want to address it with Ingram if it had to be in the 1st round. You may want to look at his stats too: for the most part he had average or poor games (3.5 ypc) against the top 3-4 SEC teams. I do like him though.

It is really hard to judge how good or bad our backs are when defense are getting 1 to 2 yards in the backfield at the handoff. Our guys are fighting many times just to get back to the line of scrimmage. We need to open holes for these guys if we do that I have little doubt they will show they are more than capable of doing the job.

 

[Verdict]

He won't last this long, but I would love to see us take DeMarco Murray with a 2nd round pick. He is awesome catching passes out of the backfield and finds the end zone.

 

[MarionBarberThe4th]

Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson, other than that no RB's taken in R1 really was worth it. Ray Rice would have been.

Look at the Bills who keep taking RB's instead of OL or QB's and whiffing on their one pass-rusher

 

[dbair1967]

I think he is going to be a big-time NFL RB. We may regret it if we pass him up.

I wouldnt take him where we're drafting now. I like him too, but not at 9.

I bet he wont get picked before #20.

 

[CATCH17]

He won't last this long, but I would love to see us take DeMarco Murray with a 2nd round pick. He is awesome catching passes out of the backfield and finds the end zone.

Demarco Murray will be a nobody in the NFL.

 

[Randy White]

Jones and Choice are more than capable. When the 2 best RB's in the league don't make a difference for their teams, I just don't see the value for them that early ( and I am talking about Johnson and Peterson)

RB's are one position you definitely don't need to spend a first round pick on, we already did that with Felix and so far it hasn't done us much good.

Those are ALL reasonable and very valid arguments..

Still, here's the thing: the Dallas Cowboys have a PROUD history of producing Hall of Fame QBs and Hall of Fame running backs. We already have 2 HOF Qbs ( Roger and Troy ), 2 HOF RBs ( Tony and Emmitt ), and perhaps a 3rd HOF QB ( TR ) in the making, football god permitting. I'd love for us to find that " special back " that follows in Tony's and Emmitt's footsteps. Right now we don't have any. It's been over 6 years since Emmitt retired, and 8 years since he wore a Cowboys uniform. We've never, ever, been that long without that " special back ". Even during the transition between Tony and Emmitt, we had Hershel, who despite his critics, still managed to rushed for 1,500 yards in his last full season as a Cowboy.

I know all the arguments against it, how today's NFL is more of a passing league, yadda yadda blah blah.. All true. It's still a tempting thought that should not be discarded easily.