This year, the Dallas Cowboys haven’t been particularly active in the free agency market. However, on Tuesday night, they finally made an addition when they added Royce Freeman, after waiting almost a month without signing anyone.
ESPN.com reports that the seasoned running back has reached an agreement on a one-year contract. Despite having only started nine games in his NFL career, Freeman will still be the Cowboys’ most seasoned running back. Freeman will join Dallas’s group of young running backs, which currently includes Hunter Luepke, Snoop Connor, Deuce Vaughn, and Malik Davis.
After beginning his career with the Denver Broncos in 2018, Freeman will be playing for his fifth franchise, the Cowboys.
During his first two seasons in the league, Freeman averaged 508.5 running yards per season; however, he has subsequently slowed down. Freeman did not reach the 200-yard mark once while playing for the Broncos, Panthers, or Texans between 2020 and 2022.
The 28-year-old actually ran the ball very well last season, averaging 4.1 yards per carry for a total of 319 yards on 77 carries with the Los Angeles Rams. For Los Angeles, he added two more touchdowns. With Tony Pollard gone, the Cowboys still need assistance at running back, even though Freeman offers them more depth in that area.
thus it won’t come as a surprise if the Cowboys choose a running back first overall in the NFL Draft the following week.
Given that the Cowboys have been rather quiet in free agency this year, it is somewhat surprise that they signed Freeman. Since free agency began on March 13, Freeman is just the second outside player the Cowboys have signed. Eric Kendricks, who had originally agreed to a deal with the San Francisco 49ers, signed with the Cowboys on the opening day of play, marking the lone other signing. Up until Freeman’s signing, the Cowboys had not added any outside players.
During an appearance with 105.3 The Fan in Dallas this week, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones was compelled to justify his team’s lack of signed players.
“When you’re wanting to sign players like Dak [Prescott] and Micah [Parsons] and CeeDee [Lamb], then certainly you have to hold money back if you want to have a realistic chance of signing those guys,” Jones stated to NFL.com.
If any one of those three players had received a contract extension by now, Cowboys supporters would likely feel a little better about that remark. To make matters worse, Parsons and Lamb failed to show up for the start of the team’s optional exercises this week.
