The Dallas Cowboys really meant it when they said throughout the offseason they were comfortable with moving Tony Pollard into a full-time feature back role. Dallas brought in only one veteran running back from outside the organization to work in the backfield, and on Monday, it cut him.
Ronald Jones spent the offseason with Dallas and worked behind Pollard, as well as Rico Dowdle, Deuce Vaughn and former third-stringer Malik Davis, who re-signed to the team's practice squad. Jones was suspended during training camp for having failed a performance-enhancing drug test. His suspension was lifted on Monday, and Dallas promptly announced that it had released Jones.
Through the first two weeks of the season, Pollard is leading the league in carries per game, while Dowdle and Vaughn have received minimal non-garbage time work behind him. And now, we know Jones won't be joining the active roster to eat into Pollard's workload at all. He's going to continue to handle the significant majority of the backfield reps.
Jones spent last season with the Kansas City Chiefs, appearing in six games and carrying 17 times for 70 yards and a touchdown. He had previously been a second-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and ran for 2,174 yards and 18 scores during his four seasons with the Bucs.
