Running back Javonte Williams bet on himself last year, signing a one-year, $3 million deal. He delivered, with a career-high 1,200 rushing yards.
His reward was a three-year, $24 million deal to remain with the Cowboys.
Since the Williams deal was the first significant contract signed by a looming free agent, it’s important to remember a few things as we approach new-contract season. The initial reports routinely overstate the true value of the contract. For example, the reported $16 million in guarantees for Williams surely aren’t fully guaranteed at signing, and there’s little about the structure of the deal. There could be a little fudging at play to make the deal look better than it is, with the reporters who rush to Twitter with the early information rarely if ever insisting on full and accurate details. (If they do, someone else gets the scoop.)
For now, even the potentially inflated initial reporting reinforces an important point: The running back position continues to be undervalued.
The deal, if it’s truly worth $8 million per year, puts Williams at 16th among all current running backs. And while he took the offer before the annual tampering festival in Indianapolis, it’s believed that the offer the took was the best one he was going to get.
It’s also possible the Cowboys tried aggressively to get Williams signed before he could hit the market, perhaps by trotting out their CBA-violating practice of negotiating directly with the player. Or by making it clear that they’ll find another cheap veteran running back in the second or third wave of free agency, when players sign modest one-year deals.
Still, what would Williams have gotten on the open market? The absence of state income taxes in Texas are a factor. (Most players only care about APY, and that’s often a mistake.) Only the superstars at the position get market value. Eagles running back Saquon Barkley leads the way, at $20.6 million per year. 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey’s current deal has a new-money average of $19 million.
It happens for one very simple reason. The supply of capable running backs outweighs demand. Teams can resort to the draft for a younger, cheaper, and usually healthier player in lieu of paying a veteran who may not be able to duplicate his performance in a contract year.
Every year, college football generates plenty of running backs who can play at the NFL level, if they can be trusted to hold onto the ball and if they are able to pick up blitzers in pass protection. Most of them have their best years under slotted rookie contracts. When those expire, teams look for another young player to replace them.
The Williams contract gives other teams a data point that will become relevant to their negotiations with running backs. The other players who’ll be trying to get paid (Kenneth Walker III, Breece Hall, Travis Etienne, Rico Dowdle, Rachaad White, Isiah Pacheco, JK Dobbins) will have to deal with the argument that a guy who rushed for 1,200 yards in 2025 got only $8 million per year. (The counter would include that Williams isn’t much of a factor in the passing game, and that he lacks breakaway speed.)
Then there’s Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs. Currently eligible for a second deal, he has shown the kind of superstar ability that would justify a market-level contract.
And how about Falcons running back Bijan Robinson? Repeatedly called the best player in the entire league by his former head coach, Raheem Morris, Robinson will be in line for a superstar contract, too.
Will the Williams deal hold down what the Lions will offer Gibbs and what the Falcons will offer Robinson? It shouldn’t be a factor, at all. Gibbs and Robinson are far closer to Barkley and McCaffrey than the players who are hitting the market. Still, all running backs who are ready to become free agents will have to deal with the fact — as underscored by the Williams deal — that the running back market continues to be not what it could be, or perhaps what it should be.
Scratch running back Javonte Williams from the list of 2026 free agents.
According to multiple reports, Williams has agreed to a new three-year deal in Dallas. The pact is worth $24 million with $16 million in guaranteed money.
Williams signed a one-year deal with the Cowboys after leaving the Broncos as a free agent last year. He ran 252 times for 1,201 yards and 11 touchdowns while catching 35 passes for 137 yards and two scores.
The attempts, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns were all career highs for Williams, which makes it easy to understand why he’d sign up for another year in the Cowboys offense.
With Williams back in the fold, the Cowboys can turn more of their attention to trying to hold onto wide receiver George Pickens for years to come as well.
The Cowboys waived linebacker Logan Wilson on Friday, the team announced.
The move will save the team $6.5 million against the salary cap.
The Cowboys traded with the Bengals for Wilson at the trade deadline, giving up a seventh-round pick.
Wilson played 224 snaps in seven games, one of those a start, and totaled 24 tackles, a forced fumble and a pass defensed. He had no snaps in the Week 16 game against the Commanders.
The Bengals benched Wilson for rookie Barrett Carrett, prompting the veteran to ask for a trade. In eight games with Cincinnati, Wilson had 46 tackles and four pass breakups.
The Bengals made Wilson a third-round pick in 2020, and he started 65 of 76 games he played for the team.
The Cowboys have played a 4-3 defense for most of their history. All five Super Bowls they have won in their history came with a 4-3 defense.
They will play a 3-4 base this season, new defensive coordinator Christian Parker said Wednesday.
“First thing, we’re going to be multiple,” Parker said, via Schuyler Dixon of the Associated Press. “I think that whenever you form a defensive structure it’s about the players that you have. So our core principles we’ll be a 3-4 by nature, 4-3 spacing will be appropriate, 4-2-5 in nickel different front structures, coverages behind it. But I will say being multiple is probably the most important thing about it.”
It marks the first time the Cowboys have played a 3-4 base defense since 2012 under Rob Ryan. DeMarcus Ware had 11.5 sacks that season, his next-to-last in Dallas.
The Cowboys initially moved to a 3-4 in 2005, Bill Parcells’ third season, and stayed in that defense until 2013 when Monte Kiffin replaced Ryan as defensive coordinator. Mike Nolan ran a hybrid system in 2020, and the Cowboys allowed the most points in team history (473) until 2025 (511) when Matt Eberflus’ unit allowed more.
The Cowboys fired Eberflus after one season.
Parker groomed under Vic Fangio with the Eagles, Vance Joseph with the Broncos, Mike Pettine with the Packers and Mike Elko at Notre Dame and Texas A&M. All four ran a 3-4 structure.
“I think once you get past that from the fronts, you build and the coverages you do, personality on third down, red zone, you definitely have a mentality as a play-caller, but I think it still has to be designed around the players that you have,” Parker said. “I have little nuances that I’ve taken from each one of them and even people outside of that. I’ve had extensive studies when you build relationships outside of the circle you’ve been in, you want to incorporate them into.”
The Cowboys’ defensive line is the strength, with Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark and Osa Odighizuwa. They kept Odighizuwa on an $80 million contract last offseason, traded for Clark in the Micah Parsons trade with the Packers and acquired Williams in an in-season deal with the Jets.
“The game is definitely won and lost up front,” Parker said. “We have significant players in the front seven, and so I think when you start with that defensive line room and what you’re able to do in controlling the pocket, stopping the run, control what an offense is able to do and if you’re able to dictate to them on their terms so you’re not playing the whole playbook on first and second down. I think it starts there.
“That’s where the excitement starts. There’s several other pieces that have been proven playmakers. We look forward to kind of bringing it all together in the next couple of months.”
With the Scouting Combine less than a week ago, the NFL’s hiring process is coming to a close.
The Cowboys announced the completion of their staff a day after introducing new defensive coordinator Christian Parker. While the Cowboys’ offensive staff remained mostly intact, Parker hired his own staff.
That created turnover on the defensive side.
Here are the newcomers to the team’s defensive staff:
- Christian Parker - Defensive coordinator
- Ryan Smith - Secondary coach
- Derrick Ansley - Defensive pass game coordinator/DBs
- Marcus Dixon - Defensive line coach
- Demeitre Brim - Assistant defensive line coach
- Chidera Uzo-Diribe - Outside linebackers coach
- Scott Symons - Inside linebackers coach
- Robert Muschamp - Assistant secondary coach
In addition, assistant linebackers coach J.J. Clark will return for a second season with the Cowboys.
The only changes to the offensive staff were the additions of Kyle Fuller as assistant offensive line coach/quality control coach and Stephen Bravo-Brown as assistant wide receivers coach.
