The Dallas Cowboys had the bye week to lick their wounds after suffering a beatdown at the hands of the Detroit Lions, but as the team prepares to return to the field of play against the San Francisco 49ers next Sunday, the same problems remain.

One of the biggest issues is that Dallas has fielded arguably the worst rushing attack in the NFL through six weeks and clearly needs an upgrade to elevate the backfield tandem of Rico Dowdle and Ezekiel Elliott if it hopes to balance the offense.

Bradley Locker of Pro Football Focus on Tuesday, October 22, authored a “fairytale” trade proposal that would see the Cowboys deal for Travis Etienne Jr. of the struggling Jacksonville Jaguars to address the run game.

What should be a playoff-caliber roster is now a disjointed team, and that likely means pieces will be moved. Jacksonville sits eighth in rushing EPA per play, in part due to the breakout of Tank Bigsby, whose 82.5 rushing grade ranks ninth among players with 50-plus carries. In turn, Etienne could be expendable.

A team that would love adding a player like Etienne is the Cowboys. Dallas’ rushing game has been woeful all season, ranking 29th in team rushing grade with the second-fewest explosive rushes in the NFL.

Etienne will hit free agency following the 2025 campaign. If Bigsby is now clearly the future of the position in Jacksonville, that makes Etienne a more probable trade chip ahead of the November 5 deadline.

Etienne topped 1,000 yards rushing in each of his first two NFL seasons and has scored 18 career rushing TDs across 40 games played.