Cowboys should lean more heavily on RB Javonte Williams moving forward

The Dallas Cowboys seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place sitting at 1-2 through three weeks of the 2025 NFL season. With the current state of their porous defense and the unfortunate injuries to key starters on the offensive side of the ball, any chance of success moving forward is looking pretty bleak at the moment.

Defensively, there are some pretty dramatic changes that need to be made by Matt Eberflus for this unit to become serviceable at best. There is simply no easy fix, and it could take weeks or even months for such a turnaround to happen, if ever. Maybe the return of DaRon Bland will help, but he’s just one person.

Offensively, Dallas is arguably talented enough to go toe-to-toe with just about any other high-scoring offense around the league. That of course is when they are 100% healthy. Sadly, that’s not the case right now. It’s bad enough they’re down two starting offensive lineman (Cooper Beebe, Tyler Booker), but losing CeeDee Lamb, their best playmaker, for whatever amount of time dramatically alters the game plan as well as production.

With the current state of the Dallas Cowboys on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball, Brian Schottenheimer may want to try to alter how they approach the coming weeks to get themselves the best chance of remaining competitive. That could mean leaning more heavily on running back Javonte Williams moving forward.

Williams has been one of the biggest surprises this year for the Dallas Cowboys. He was pretty much an afterthought free agent addition this year, but so far through the first three weeks he’s done nothing but prove he’s one of the better RBs in the league so far this season.

To date, Williams has rushed for 227 yards and three touchdowns in three games, while averaging an impressive 5.3 yards per attempt. What’s even more impressive is his ability to pick up yards after contact, with 70% of his yards coming after contact.

If you’re doing the math at home, 70% means that 159 yards of Williams’ 227 has been gained after contact. That’s pretty impressive for an RB no one really considered starting material. And, considering he’s been so productive so far, now might be the perfect time to make him more of a focal point moving forward.

With the defense being in the state it is right now and being down three starters on offense, there’s a chance the Cowboys can navigate around both these concerns by attempting to control the time of possession with a more heavy run-oriented game plan for the time being.

Going with that would help lessen the time Dallas’ defense will hopefully be on the field getting exploited and also help the offense by making them much more two-dimensional instead of airing it out all the time without their best playmaker. It should also help the two injury fill ins along their OL from being exposed as much. It sounds like a win-win, right?

This of course is easier said than done. The Cowboys can only stick with the running game as long as the score is somewhat close. With the way their defense has been giving up big plays these past few weeks being able to stick with the run game may be out of their hands. They may be forced to air it out in order to try to keep pace.

Only time will tell of course, but if it’s possible leaning more heavily on Williams moving forward could help kill two birds with one stone. He has proven he is capable of carrying the workload so far and if the Cowboys want to keep their season from circling the drain he might be the solution to stay afloat for the next few weeks.