The Cowboys have tried and failed to move the ball with a handful of running backs, Ezekiel Elliott and Dalvin Cook, this season. But they could have had one of the best young running backs in football, if things had gone a little differently.

Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs, who is averaging 103 yards per game this season, says he didn’t expect the Lions to draft him 12th overall in 2023, and was actually told that he was the Cowboys guy if he still was. on the board when they chose.

“To Detroit, no, I really didn’t expect to go. I knew they liked me, but you know, when you go on a visit, it seems like they all like you,” Gibbs said on the Richard Sherman Podcast, via CBS Sports. “It was crazy I knew for a fact that Dallas was going to get me at 26 if I was still there, and a few other places like Cincinnati were going to get me. I think they (the Bengals) were going to trade up to about 18 or something around that range. I didn’t think I was going to finish 12th.

The Cowboys selected Rico Dowdle as their best running back, and he has certainly been better than Elliott and Cook, but he lacks the flash and explosiveness of Gibbs, a running back who was a surprising choice for the Lions but who became the player Detroit hoped he would be.