If the Dallas Cowboys are going to do anything next year, it will not involve going to the NFC Championship Game. All 15 other teams in the NFC have been more recently than America's Team, so let that sink in.
In the meantime, are you ready for some Martyball?! Yes, the son of Martyball himself, recently promoted head coach Brian Schottenheimer is going to run, run, pass and punt this season. If you need any more proof of that notion, take a look at who ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. has Dallas taking at No. 12 in his latest NFL mock draft.
He has the Cowboys reaching on former North Carolina star running back Omarion Hampton with the No. 12 selection. This is not meant to be a slight on Hampton or his game, but I never once thought he was a first-round pick coming out, let alone now!
Had the top running back in this class been available at No. 12 in the form of former Boise State star Ashton Jeanty, I would have had less of a problem of the Cowboys using their first-round pick at the position. Then again, Schottenheimer seems dead-set on running the same offense that made his late father an icon in the '80s, '90s and 2000s (at least right up until the Chargers fired him).
Hampton could help improve the Cowboys as a whole, but they have so many bigger holes to fill first.
Dallas Cowboys could reach on Omarion Hampton with the No. 12 pick
To be totally transparent, I am not completely against the idea of the Cowboys taking Hampton, or any running back for that matter, in the first round. My issue is that it has to be Jeanty at No. 12, or the Cowboys need to try and trade back to land someone like Hampton. Dallas may not have to move down the board all that far, as a team like the Denver Broncos picking at No. 20 could be in on him.
What you have to understand is you have to get the most amount of value possible for your first-round pick. This is because second-round picks are inherently better bang for your buck than those who go in the top-32. Yes, you may have to pay him a year earlier, but the level of production is largely the same once you get past the first 16 picks or so in a given draft. You cannot pay a premium, either.
The other very important point to realize is Dallas may do as well, if not better than most teams in the draft. Where they regularly get burned is a front office overly beholden to their homegrown players, meaning they overspend in free agency to retain or overextend them far beyond their useful shelf life. Nobody likes Cowboys players more than the Cowboys' front office.
Hampton can work for the Cowboys, but he must be productive right away to capitalize on his prime.