Phillip Tanner

Dallas running back Phillip Tanner looked quicker and more explosive in the spring practices.

Tanner, a former Dallas Kimball standout, played his way onto the roster in 2011 as an undrafted player out of Middle Tennessee State. But in the last half of 2012, the Cowboys used him less and less as Lance Dunbar emerged, and it looked like Tanner was falling out of favor.

When the Cowboys drafted another running back, Oklahoma State’s Joseph Randle, and signed an undrafted back, Kendial Lawrence of Missouri, it only added to the perception.

Tanner said he put all that out of his mind.

“Coming in and working hard every day, working with the offensive line and jelling with my team is the big thing,” he said.

Randle will likely back up DeMarco Murray this season leaving Tanner and Dunbar to battle for the RB3 spot in camp.