Cowboys could have draft fit in injured Texas RB Jonathon Brooks. Is it worth the risk?

The Cowboys need to come out of next week’s draft with a running back.

Arguably the best back in this draft will still be available going into Day 2, in part, because he’s working his way back from an injury.

This franchise has shown a willingness to draft injured players in the second round through the years, believing those physical issues pushed the player further down the draft board than their talent dictated. And that leads us to …

Jonathon Brooks.

It’s premature to declare that Brooks will find his way to Dallas. There’s no assurance the Texas running back will still be around when the Cowboys are on the clock at No. 56.

But it’s reasonable to speculate.

Dallas didn’t let Tony Pollard walk in free agency because his replacement is currently on the roster. The club didn’t sign Royce Freeman earlier this week to install the journeyman as the lead back.

That player will come from the draft. If he’s not taken in the first three rounds — the Cowboys have the No. 87 pick in the third round, then go 87 picks without a selection — it’s hard to argue the club upgraded the position.

And that brings us back to Brooks.

“Obviously, he’s a guy we follow right in our backyard in Texas,” executive vice president Stephen Jones said. “He’s got a lot of skill sets. If it wasn’t for the injury, he might [have] ultimately been rated the best back in the draft.

“Any time that a back is coming off an injury, you have to take those things into account.”

Brooks ran for 1,139 yards and 10 touchdowns in the fall. He caught 25 passes for another 286 yards and a touchdown. But he tore his ACL and missed the final three games of the season.

The rookie won’t be able to take part in organized team activities or minicamp wherever he lands. But he’s told teams he should be cleared to participate once training camps are underway in July. The medical reports support that assessment.

The Cowboys should have a good handle on those reports. Dr. Dan Cooper, one of the team’s physicians, performed the surgery.

“It always helps when one of the doctors you’re very familiar with does the surgery,” Jones acknowledged. “That’ll be very helpful.”

Brooks appears to be an instinctive runner with good balance and vision. His jump cuts are explosive. As the Cowboys dig into the back’s strengths and dissect his weaknesses, officials can go to his position coach with the Longhorns for more information. That would be Tashard Choice.

The same Tashard Choice who rushed for 1,139 yards in his three-plus seasons with the Cowboys and launched his coaching career as an intern with the club in 2016.

Sean Lee, Bruce Carter and Jaylon Smith were all players coming off a significant injury since ’10 that Dallas has taken in the second round. Luke Schoonmaker, last year’s second-rounder, wasn’t coming off a serious injury, but did have an injury history.

Randy Gregory, who raised a red flag after testing positive for marijuana at the scouting combine, was also taken in the second round.

The point: the Cowboys have a pattern of accepting a higher level of risk in the second round than they traditionally do in other rounds.

“We’ve never done that, have we?” Jones asked jokingly. “Jerry [Jones] doesn’t have that DNA in him to take a risk.”

This is not a Brooks-or-bust proposition. Florida State’s Trey Benson, Oregon’s Bucky Irving and Wisconsin’s Braelon Allen have all paid visits to The Star. Michigan’s Blake Corum and Tennessee’s Jaylen Wright hold interest.

All of these backs fall in the third- to fourth-round range. While the Cowboys don’t have a fourth-round pick at the moment, if the club wants a back who can be part of the rotation from Day 1, it will need to acquire one.

“The running back position, as we all know, you can find really good backs and you can put them in a position to have success,” Jones said.

An argument can be made that it makes more sense for Dallas to wait until the third round to take a back. You can also argue the Cowboys are in no position to take a risk in the second round of this draft because they’ve done so little in free agency to cover themselves at key positions.

But if the Cowboys are willing to assume a risk to potentially reap a big reward, Brooks is a name to keep in mind. They’ve done it before.

Especially in the second round.

Catch David Moore on Cowboys Happy Hour on The Ticket (KTCK-AM 1310 and 96.7 FM) on Tuesday night at 7 o’clock in April.

Twitter/X: @DavidMooreDMN

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