Sure looks like Cowboys coaching hires have a lot to do with Ashton Jeanty

Now that the Dallas Cowboys have wrapped up one of the more confounding head coaching searches in recent memory, attention now turns to the rest of a critical offseason — including, perhaps most prominently, which direction the team will go in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Coming off a 7-10 season, there are plenty of needs Dallas could look to fill with the No. 12 overall pick, from both lines of scrimmage to the defensive backfield, wide receiver and linebacker as well.

One name in particular, however, keeps popping back up: running back Ashton Jeanty, fresh off one of the most impressive seasons in college football history at Boise State. While it's fair to question the wisdom of taking a running back so early with so many other holes on the roster, we've seen Jerry Jones succumb to that particular temptation before, and he could do it again this spring — especially after being dragged over the coals for months for his unwillingness to sign a star like Derrick Henry or Saquon Barkley last offseason.

And based on how new head coach Brian Schottenheimer is filling out his first staff, expect the Jeanty speculation to only ramp up in the coming days and weeks.

Cowboys coaching hires seem to point toward Ashton Jeanty

Jeanty to Dallas gained even more steam last week, when Cowboys executives made clear that revamping the team's running game was a top priority this offseason.

“We want to be able to run the ball," Stephen Jones told reporters at the Senior Bowl. "That’s what great championship football teams do (...) I think it’s real important that we find in this hire a coach that’s going to be outstanding in the run game area.” 

Of course, being "outstanding in the run game area" means a lot more than just finding a new running back. But just a few days later, the team announced Klayton Adams as its new offensive coordinator ... a man who spent his college career as an offensive lineman at none other than Boise State. Adams got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant with the Broncos under Chris Petersen, working his way through the college ranks before serving as an offensive line coach with the Indianapolis Colts and, for the past two years, the Arizona Cardinals.

Granted, Adams and Jeanty never crossed paths in Boise; even Petersen was long gone by the time he even committed to the Broncos. But it's still not too hard to connect the dots here: Dallas has tapped a run-first coach to serve as its OC, one who presumably knows plenty of people who know (and will vouch for) Jeanty. The running back almost certainly won't last until the team's pick in the second round, meaning that if Dallas wants him, they're going to have to take him as No. 12 — even if it means passing up on a lineman to do so.