Cowboys could welcome in a four-time Pro Bowler into the offense and it still would not matter

The Dallas Cowboys don't seem to know who their starting running back is. Nor what the identity of the room is, as Rico Dowdle failed to provide an answer when asked about it moments after a 44-19 loss to the New Orleans Saints.

In Week 1, the Cowboys fed Ezekiel Elliott early on but one week later it took until the third drive of the game for him to even get on the field. Before that even happened, the coaching staff seemingly got to experimenting with a package featuring Deuce Vaughn. When Zeke finally got on the field, it's not like the running game was suddenly fixed.

As a team, the Cowboys averaged 3.2 yards per attempt, with Dowdle being the only back above the four-yard mark. Elliott and Vaughn didn't even get to average three per attempt.

It's a broken running game and one that has led to some speculation about practice squad four-time Pro Bowler Dalvin Cook being called up very soon. Jerry Jones told 105.3 The Fan he didn't “necessarily see a change that would involve (Dalvin) Cook this week.”

Cook, who was signed in August, remains on the practice squad and would need to be a gameday roster elevation to be eligible to play. He can be elevated up to three times without having to be promoted to the 53-man roster.

Here's my thing, though: Why would we believe Cook would change anything for this offense if he finally debuts in it?

The Cowboys run game problems extend beyond the running back position

We've seen three running back struggle for Dallas and that's despite seeing very few stacked boxes in the first place, as John Owning pointed out in the tweet below: The Cowboys are 24th in success rate when running the ball despite seeing 8+man boxes on the 2nd fewest amount of plays this season.

The reasons are a mixed bag: On the one hand, blocking is far from ideal, with the offensive line struggling to sustain blocks long enough to give the backs a chance in many plays. Additionally, the scheme is once again one that insists on running the ball straight up the gut without many ways of manufacturing big plays or changing things up.

Outside runs are a rarity and pulling linemen to get out in space are as well. While many other NFL teams appear to make life easier on their backs, the Cowboys appear to be mightily struggling for every yard as they need everything to look almost perfect and when it does, we're talking about a nine-yard gain and probably not much else.

Every once in a while, the Cowboys throw in a nice changeup, like the pin and pull concept below they called against the Saints: CeeDee Lamb blocks the defensive end while right tackle Terence Steele and Cooper Beebe pull outside to pave the way for Dowdle. It's a nice six-yard gain on second-and-eight.

We've also seen some sweeps (CeeDee Lamb got a few versus the Browns) and reverse end arounds (Brandin Cooks appeared to be on his way into the endzone had it not been because of a missed block) two weeks into the season. Aside from gadgety plays, however, there isn't a lot of changeups on the Cowboys' heavy dose of inside runs, most of which are zone schemes.

Before we even expect a Cowboys running back, whoever it may be, to separate himself from the pack, the run game needs to improve from a blocking and schematic point of view.

As for Cook, clearly, the Cowboys don't seem too high on the veteran, who they reportedly told they wanted him for the practice squad and not for the 53-man roster. All City DLLS' Joe Hoyt recently noted on Twitter/X Cook has only been in a ramp-up program during practice.

Expecting Dalvin to overcome the problems we've been seeing on the Cowboys run game since last season is nothing but wild optimism.

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