Cowboys RB Joseph Randle appears to be the lead dog heading into camp. If Darren McFadden is healthy, he could also fill the starting role. Lance Dunbar will likely see more carries, but his biggest impact should come during passing downs.
“We’re very confident in what we have,” Cowboys running backs coach Gary Brown said. “We got some very good football players. With the addition of Darren it’s going to be a nice group. I can’t say who is going to be the lead dog right now, but those guys are going to compete and we’re going to do what’s necessary to win games.
“I just think that we have a complementary backfield,” Cowboys offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said. “They’re going to spread out the carries. Some games are going to be different than others. Maybe one guy is going to have more in one game than the other or maybe sometimes two guys are going to split the carries, sometimes it’s going to be three. Again, it’s to be determined. It is a bit rare to have the one guy carry all the load. I tip my hat to DeMarco for being able to do it. But these other guys have different roles now that he’s gone. We’re going to have someone step up, and I know they’re excited about it.”
It may be the team's intention to split the work among the three backs, but a talent disparity between Randle and McFadden along with McFadden's history of fragility leads us to believe that Randle is the back to own in this backfield.
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