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Is Miles Sanders, Javonte Williams, Jaydon Blue the Cowboys starting running back? Should I draft Miles Sanders, Javonte Williams, Jaydon Blue for fantasy football drafts?
The Dallas Cowboys signed running backs Miles Sanders and Javonte Williams as free agents and spent a fifth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft on rookie running back Jaydon Blue (knee) to overhaul their backfield ahead of the 2025 season. They opted not to re-sign their lead back from 2024, Rico Dowdle.
Naturally, it can be difficult to decipher which running backs will lead a team in carries to start the season and how the volume will be divided up as the season goes on. Luckily, though, we can look through the film, statistics, and other relevant data to try to find the answer.
You can also let me do it and take the recommendations away from this article that I provide. It's your choice! I spend hundreds of hours during the offseason pouring over player film, advanced analytics, and... well, analyzing situations to give you an edge. So let's dive in here!
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Miles Sanders Fantasy Football Outlook
Sanders is not a good running back. That much was made plain after his two seasons with the Carolina Panthers. We saw him have a nice season behind the Philadelphia Eagles' offensive line, but that was the last time he looked like a competent starter.
The Cowboys seem to have adopted the "screw it, we don't need real running backs" philosophy when it came to their free-agent signings. As you can probably guess, I'm not too high on Williams, either, but we'll get to that later. For starters, the Cowboys signed Sanders for dirt-cheap.
Sanders is only making about $1.3 million on a one-year deal. In terms of the salary cap, that's absolutely nothing, and plenty of rookies make more than that. Sanders might not have even been signed to another team had the Cowboys not offered him a deal.
Miles Sanders' vision was not the best vs. BAL. Almost looked like he predetermined reads and ignored some reads postsnap
— John Owning (@JohnOwning) August 17, 2025
Sanders' efficiency and overall production were absolutely smashed by Carolina Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard last season. It really wasn't close. Sanders was so bad that the team let him go despite signing him to a healthy contract to get him to the team in the first place.
He's hardly even replacement-level. He's clearly not in the long-term plans for Dallas' offensive vision. It's almost like he was signed just to be a transitional back until another, far more athletic and talented player could get used to playing in the league.
Last season, he averaged just over 3.3 yards per carry behind one of the league's better run-blocking offensive lines. Carolina's guards were regularly praised for opening up holes in the run game. Sanders was just so irredeemably awful that it didn't matter. There's no reason to draft him in fantasy football unless you hate yourself and want to suffer.
Javonte Williams Fantasy Football Outlook
After the devastating knee injury he suffered in 2022, when he tore his ACL, LCL, and posterolateral corner, Williams has looked absolutely awful on the field. He's sluggish. He doesn't have the explosiveness to provide a special element to a team's run game.
Denver tried to make it work with him last season. He started the season with the clear No. 1 role. Aside from a big game against a basically worthless New Orleans Saints run defense that had given up on its soon-to-be-fired head coach, Dennis Allen, Williams did basically nothing of note.
The "Javonte Williams Line" is something I've used repeatedly this offseason to note bad running backs that you shouldn't draft. He averaged 0.13 forced missed tackles per touch in 2024. Running backs who had similar elusiveness rates, like Los Angeles Rams running back Kyren Williams, have been on my lists of potential busts.
Jaydon Blue (ankle) will not play tonight, but Miles Sanders will, along with Deuce Vaughn, Phil Mafah at tailback. Looking more and more like Javonte Williams will be the starting RB to open season since he's not played the first 2 games and worked with the 1s all summer.
— Todd Archer (@toddarcher) August 16, 2025
But massive knee injuries like his can take a long time to recover from. It's possible that he's back to 100 percent now. I doubt it, but it's technically possible. At the least, a marginal improvement from last season wouldn't be totally surprising. But Williams' effectiveness as an RB was overstated to begin with.
He had a "breakout" rookie season, forcing a high rate of missed tackles. Yet he averaged under 4.5 yards per carry and wasn't hyper-effective as a receiver. The best we can probably expect from now on is a nerfed version of that. But he's better than Sanders, I think. So that's good.
When running backs have a high stuff rate (carries of zero or fewer yards), we want them to force tons of missed tackles & fight for yards after contact.
Notables (good/bad):
-Jerome Ford
-Dameon Pierce
-Breece Hall
-Javonte Williams
-Rachaad White
-Derrick Henry
-Josh Jacobs pic.twitter.com/Lr9j1tPRC3— Corbin (@corbin_young21) August 28, 2024
Nothing Williams has done since his injury has inspired a lot of confidence, but in order to get the starting role, all he has to do is be better than Sanders. In deeper leagues, he could have some utility to start the season, and could even steal significant goal-line work, which could make him an attractive waiver-wire target.
But he'll be heavily volume-dependent, and his season-long workload will depend heavily on how the rookie the Cowboys drafted performs as the season goes on. It takes time for rookies to break out, so I think if Blue can stay healthy, Williams' workload will decrease as the season goes on.
Jaydon Blue Fantasy Football Outlook
Blue is an interesting player to discuss. He has fantastic athleticism. He ran a 4.38-second 40-yard dash, and it appears that he's even faster than that, because he was injured with a Grade 2 groin strain during the NFL Combine. He's an elite athlete.
He's also a fantastic pass-catcher. He ranked near the top of the class in yards per route run among running backs, and he showed off good (relatively) separation skills. He's also great after the catch with the ball in his hands, using his massive explosiveness to pick up chunk gains.
Jaydon Blue as a runner, blocker and catcher because thats playas pic.twitter.com/xMWN4x8sOm
— Voch Lombardi (@VochLombardi) April 27, 2025
So what's the problem? Blue should immediately take over and become the lead back, right? No, that's not usually how it works. Being a good running back isn't all about being a good athlete and pass-catcher. It takes time to learn schemes, and many players suffer from mental errors that can lead to missed yardage and possibly even turnovers.
My analysis indicates that Sanders and Williams are both bad, and that neither is likely to bounce back in a big way and have much better efficiency this season than they did in previous years. But Blue having anything more than a pass-catching role early in Year 1 isn't likely, in my opinion.
Who Should You Draft in Fantasy Football?
Blue. He has far more upside. He'll need time to work on his game and clean up mistakes, but he's an explosive athlete with pass-catching upside, and that's exactly the type of player you want to bet on in PPR leagues. If you're not first, you're last, so swing for the fences. Temper your expectations, though.
Who Should I Draft Tool
You can also see the Who Should I Draft tool here.
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