Cowboys not interested in trading running backs despite drafting Ezekiel Elliott

They may have used a top five draft pick on Ezekiel Elliott, but the Dallas Cowboys aren’t open to moving either of their veteran running backs.

Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones made it clear that Darren McFadden and Alfred Morris aren’t available, at least not yet, to the rest of the league.

“We got calls during the draft asking to trade for a couple of our running backs, and we just don’t have that interest,” Jones said Thursday, via Charean Williams of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

In fact, the Cowboys coaching staff has emphasized that Elliott, the No. 4 pick in the draft, hasn’t earned the starting job yet.

“He’s going to compete,” running backs coach Gary Brown said, via Clarence E. Hill, Jr. of the Star-Telegram. “Zeke has to earn it. I think that’s the best thing for our team and for those guys going forward.”

Elliott is fine with that. He even admitted that the speed of the NFL caught him off-guard.

“It’s a lot faster pace,” Elliott said on Wednesday. “The game moves so much faster. Yesterday, I’m not going to lie, I was a little bit shell-shocked. But today I came out. I was a little bit more prepared and was more ready mentally so it was a little bit easier for me.”

It sounds like it’s McFadden’s job for now, even though the Cowboys are already marketing their rookie in a big way. Both McFadden and Morris could be useful trade chips, so Dallas might as well wait and see how camp plays out before they do anything that they don’t really need to do.