There’s hope some combination of Javonte Williams, Miles Sanders, Jaydon Blue and Phil Mafah can get the job done, but there’s a good chance the missing ingredient has yet to join the Cowboys roster. The trade market and post-training camp aftermarket remain viable avenues for upgrade, but even there the question remains, will an upgrade this late be an upgrade to what the Cowboys had last year?
One running back name that has been coming up a lot lately in trade speculation is New England’s Antonio Gibson. The former Commanders RB is in a crowded room with the Patriots. Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson sit firmly ahead of Gibson on the depth chart and offer little room for contributions from others.
Gibson signed with the Patriots last offseason. His three-year contract comes with cap charges of $4,500,000 in each of the next two seasons. It’s a hefty price to pay for a RB3 in today’s NFL and reason for New England to shop their 27-year-old ball carrier on the trade market.
Gibson, at 6-foot and 228-pounds, looks the part of an NFL RB. He’s a well-built gamebreaker with a thousand-yard season on his resume and breakaway speed in his arsenal. Gibson is a solid pass catcher with elusiveness in the open field. At face value, he looks a little redundant to Blue’s profile, but with the rookie Blue unproven in the NFL, redundancy might not be a bad thing.
Gibson isn’t the between-the-tackles grinder Williams is, but he’s a playmaker who can share the load. He would add to the options and largely serve as an upgrade to any other cocktail head coach Brian Schottenheimer could mix together at this point in the summer.
Gibson suffers from the same fumble concerns Blue possess but he brings elusiveness that can’t be taught. It’s not always the tackles you break but the ones you avoid altogether that matter most and Gibson sits in elite territory in this regard.
Pro Football Focus grades placed Gibson at RB36 last season which is four spots ahead of what Rico Dowdle did and eons ahead of anyone else on the Cowboys roster in 2025. Their elusive rating, which measures success and impact independent of blocking, ranks Gibson No. 1 when filtered for volume. His skill set is no joke.
RB is likely to be a situation the Cowboys address AFTER training camp. They’d like to see what they have in the pantry at home before they order takeout. If Williams bounces back to his rookie form and Blue proves he’s the gamebreaker he’s been billed to be, there’s no reason to add another RB to the payroll. But if Blue looks more like a project and Williams and/or Sanders play as slow as they played last season, Gibson would be a massive upgrade to an otherwise concerning stable of runners.
In a world of longshot trade proposals and absurd scenarios, the idea of the Cowboys trading a Day 3 draft pick for Gibson is both understandable and realistic. But even then, it’s an issue that probably won’t be addressed until after camp.
