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Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco.
The 2026 season could end up being a pretty incredible test for the Dallas Cowboys offensive line — can they get a 3rd consecutive, different, running back past the 1,000-yard mark?
The Cowboys did it with Rico Dowdle in 2024 and repeated it with Javonte Williams in 2025. More importantly, Dallas paid the 2 running backs a combined $4.255 million for those efforts.
Now, with Williams possibly headed out the door in free agency, the Cowboys might need to look for another 1,000-yard running back in 2026, and a prime candidate could be Kansas City Chiefs running back and 2-time Super Bowl champion Isiah Pacheco.
Pacheco, 5-foot-10 and 216 pounds, also would appear to have the 1 quality the Cowboys value the most in running backs — a low salary cap number.
Pacheco’s projected market value is a 1-year contract for around $3 million to $4 million.
Williams rushed for career highs of 1,201 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2025.
“A seventh-round pick in the 2022 draft, Pacheco played out his rookie contract,” Bleacher Report’s Adam Newell wrote. “His career started out on a high note with 830 rushing yards, 4.9 yards per attempt and a 57.1 percent success rate that ranked third among all running backs in 2022. Pacheco followed that up with a career-high 1,179 yards from scrimmage and nine total touchdowns in 2023. The Chiefs won back-to-back Super Bowls in his first two years. Over the past two seasons, though, Pacheco has been hampered by injuries. He has played 20 games since the start of 2023, racking up 952 scrimmage yards and three touchdowns during that span.”
Pacheco Seems Destined to Leave Chiefs
Part of Pacheco’s struggles have to do directly with the Chiefs’ struggles in the area where the Cowboys are the strongest — the offensive line.
The Chiefs seem ready to move on from Pacheco, and vice versa.
“Pacheco is an energy-giver as a teammate and has never been afraid to take on contact with a physical running style,” The Athletic’s Jesse Newell wrote on Friday. “But he also doesn’t elude tackles well and hasn’t established himself yet as a reliable receiver. He seems likely to sign elsewhere, with that team hoping the 26-year-old can see a career resurgence with better health luck.”
Cowboys Tried to Draft RB Help in 2025
The Cowboys tried and failed to draft running back help in 2025 with a pair of late-round picks in the 5th round with Jaydon Blue and the 7th round with Phil Mafah.
The 2 combined to rush for 147 yards and 1 touchdown as rookies.
Blue was, by far, the more disappointing of the 2 after pushing Williams for the starting job through training camp. Injuries saw him sidelined for the start of the regular season and he only wound up playing in 5 regular-season games.
In 1 bizarre incident, Blue was forced out of practice in the week before his regular season debut because a pair of experimental Nike/Louis Vuitton football cleats were giving him blisters. It was something head coach Brian Schottenheimer called a took him to task for.
“Cowboys RB Jaydon Blue debuted new Louis Vuitton-Nike cleats at practice on Thursday, and HC Brian Schottenheimer laughed in saying that it was a ‘questionable decision.’ ” The Fort Worth Star Telegram’s Nick Harris wrote on his official X account on October 3. ” … Blue changed out of his shoes and the blisters got better. (There’s no concerns about his game availability, for the record).”
Tony Adame covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Commanders, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles and Denver Broncos. A veteran sports writer and editor since 2004, his work has been featured at Stadium Talk, Yardbarker, NW Florida Daily News and Pensacola News Journal. More about Tony Adame
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