Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith feels Dallas isn't 'ready' to draft star RB Ashton Jeanty

The last time the Dallas Cowboys were picking as high as they are in the 2025 NFL Draft, with the 12th overall pick, they hit the jackpot.

Dallas selected three-time All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons 12th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft after a 6-10 campaign in 2020, a year in which quarterback Dak Prescott suffered a season-ending ankle injury. Prescott suffered a season-ending hamstring injury in 2024, which was a major factor in the Cowboys finishing 7-10. When picking that high in the draft, that's in a neighborhood where some blue chip players could be available. One of those players in the 2025 draft class is 2024 Heisman Trophy runner-up and Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty. The Frisco, Texas, native totaled 2,601 yards rushing this past college football season, which is the second-most in a season in Division 1 football history.

However, the Cowboys and the NFL's all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith doesn't think Dallas currently provides the right environment for Jeanty to have success as a pro. 

"If he comes to the Cowboys right now, he's going to get beat up. I don't think we're ready. We don't have the right mindset. We don't have the right commitments," Smith said Thursday on the Maggie and Perloff show. ..."I think we're drafting, we're drafting exciting pieces. Exciting pieces that get fans all 'oh we got Ashton Jeanty, oh we are going to be able to run the ball.'"

Smith pointed to Dallas having the NFL's sixth-worst rushing offense (100.3 rushing yards per game) in 2024 and not emphasizing their ground game until Week 11 when they gave running back Rico Dowdle the lead back reps. Dowdle finished the 2024 season as the first undrafted running back in team history to register a season with at least 1,000 yards rushing. To Smith's point, Dallas ranked dead last in the NFL in rushing attempts per game (21.6) in Weeks 1-9, the games quarterback Dak Prescott started in 2024. With backup Cooper Rush (Weeks 10-17) and backup Trey Lance (Week 18) filling in the second half of the season, the Cowboys averaged the 11th-most rushing attempts per game (28.4). 

 "OK, you trying to tell me Ezekiel Elliott and Rico Dowdle could not carry the team? No. There was no commitment to run the football," Smith said. "And when there was a commitment, when Dak Prescott went down, Rico ran the ball well. So don't tell me we can't run the football. Dak went down. They shifted from Cooper Rush they brought his passes down and created more runs for the running game." 

Prescott turns 32 years old on July 29 and is coming off his second season-ending injury in five years. That's why Smith is demanding new head coach Brian Schottenheimer provide more balance to the Cowboys offense going forward if Dallas is to find sustained success going forward. Schottenheimer spoke about increasing the Cowboys' play-action passing game and run-game continuity at his introductory press conference, so perhaps Jeanty would have a chance to succeed in Dallas while working with the team's new coaching staff. 

"Then, you start having this level of balance and start to show some kind of consistency. Need to do that the whole entire year," Smith said. "That's the formula that I'm talking about. And so quit trying to do what everyone else is doing in the National Football League. Your quarterback is not Patrick Mahomes, he's not Josh Allen, he's not Joe Burrow. He's Dak Prescott."