(Editor’s Note: Time to check the mail! The DallasCowboys.com staff writers answer your questions here in ‘Mailbag’ presented by Miller Lite.)
Every year we hear about this player or that player who needs to up his game. What I would like to know is which position group as a whole needs to improve the most this year for the Cowboys to have a better chance at success?– Michael Banks/Albuquerque, NM**
Patrik: Stop me if you’ve heard this before but, for me, it’s the offensive line and the running back position. Zack Martin’s degenerative ankle issue made him a shell of his former Hall of Fame self in 2024, and it helped fuel the struggles of Terence Steele. Tyler Guyton, the 2024 first-round pick, battled injury, penalties and more, and has since revamped his offseason approach — also working with future Hall of Fame left tackle Tyron Smith — understanding what the team needs from him in Year 2. Cooper Beebe was impressive as a rookie and Tyler Smith became an All-Pro, but those were the only two beacons of light in that now rebuilt unit. Tyler Booker joins the crew as a rookie first-round pick himself, and the young group needs to find a way to dominate in both pass protection and run blocking going forward.
And that brings me to the run game. Another year, another attempt at figuring out who will be RB1 and RB2, and what the mode of attack, schematically, will be, for a team that hasn’t had an identity in the ground game since Zeke and Pollard roamed the field together. It’s a nearly entirely new cast of characters in 2025, Deuce Vaughn and Hunter Luepke serving as the only familiar faces, so let’s see what JaVonte Williams, Miles Sanders and rookies Jaydon Blue and Phil Mafah can do to help solve the equation.