If Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is smart, Texas running back Jonathon Brooks will return to the scene of his final college football game in uniform.

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Problem is, Jones didn’t make preparations to bring in a veteran starter while the Texas ex recovers from the ACL tear that he suffered in November against TCU. There were several times this week when Dallas Cowboys fans all uttered the same three words in exasperation: "Wake up, Jerry."

With leading rusher Tony Pollard already having taken his leave to Tennessee, one had to believe the Cowboys would toss an irresistible offer to one of the Pro Bowlers who were available in what had to be the most talented pool of free agent running backs in league history.

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On Tuesday, those names were dropping faster than flab off a fat guy doubling up on his Ozempic dosage.

Two-time rushing champion Derrick Henry to the Ravens.

Cowboy Killer Aaron Jones to the Vikings.

Austin Ekeler to the Commanders.

Saquon Barkley to the Eagles.

Joe Mixon to the Texans.

D’Andre Swift to Bears.

Zack Moss to the Bengals.

Josh Jacobs to the Packers.

Gus Edwards to the Chargers.

Where was Jerry? Did he just turn into Ray Benson? While he was asleep at the wheel, other owners were fortifying their lineups with proven runners at bargain basement prices. You and son Stephen weren’t willing to throw a two-year deal at someone like Barkley, who already had a recent history of taking less money for the team goal?

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The meat is gone, leaving Dallas nothing but bones

Taking a glance at the remaining free agents is as frustrating as that time Mom baked a cake but threw the beaters into the dish water, forgetting that you and your sister loved licking the batter.

This group doesn’t exactly scream franchise running back: Alexander Mattison, Cordarrelle Patterson, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, D’Onta Foreman, JK Dobbins. Good players, but not players ready to touch it 20 times a game. Of those, Dobbins, a La Grange product, is 25 years old, but he has blown out a knee and tore an Achilles over the last couple of seasons. Foreman was great at Texas, but he hasn’t put together consistently good NFL seasons.

And this is where Jerry dropped the ball. He could have grabbed one of those proven commodities for a couple of years and then drafted Brooks and signed another spare part to play while Brooks gets fully healed.

Brooks interviewed well at the NFL rookie scouting combine even though he was unable to do workout drills. I would never begin to think what’s going on between Jones’ ears, but Dallas’ absence during this free agent period — the Cowboys are the only NFC East team that didn’t sign anybody as of Wednesday press time — was the worst kind of inaction for a title-starved fan base.

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The problem with this mix is ol’ Jerrah might be putting too much stock in a draft class that's lacking in star power.

Jonathon Brooks is proving his NFL worth

Brooks did become an instant star after entering Texas' starting lineup early in the season. The feeling was that the Longhorns' backfield, though talented, wouldn't be the same without the incomparable Bijan Robinson and locker room leader Roschon Johnson, but no one was complaining after watching Brooks separate himself from the field in what turned out to be his last college season.

NFL draft analyst Lance Zierlein compared the former Hallettsville star in his scouting report to Longhorns legend Jamaal Charles, a game breaker who retired as the NFL's all-time yards-per-carry leader at 5.4. Brooks was electric in his first season as a starter with 1,139 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns in only 10 games before going down with that knee injury on Nov. 11.

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“Everything happens for a reason,” Brooks told reporters at the combine. "It sucks that it happened, but it happened, so I just have to deal with what I’m given. I just have to keep my faith in God. I feel like he has a better plan for me, a bigger plan for me than I think. I just have to trust in him and believe in myself.”

Three weeks after the injury, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, in a heart-warming show of appreciation, dressed Brooks for the Big 12 title game win over Oklahoma State at Jerry World and sent him out on the field for the final snap. It was confirmation of the kid’s value to the team. The Horns would not have gone to special places in the coach’s third season had it not been for Brooks’ excellence.

Brooks was stellar. He registered six 100-yard rushing games — including four straight at one point, with a 218-yard jaw dropper in the win over Kansas that featured a 54-yard scoring sprint that showed off his often overlooked speed in the open field. He's listed on most draft rankings as a top-five back with names like Florida State’s Trey Benson, Tennessee’s Jaylen Wright, Oregon’s Bucky Irving and Notre Dame’s Audric Estime.

Brooks is so highly valued that he’s projecting as a late-first or early second-round draft pick in some mocks even if it’s possible he won’t be at full strength for training camp in July. The good news is he's ahead of his rehab schedule, according to interviews he did at the combine. "I'm weeks into my recovery, so I'm just starting to get to running," he said. "Expected timeline is training camp. July 1 or the start of training camp.”

What will Jerry do? Draft a back, sign a back

Malik Davis, an undrafted free agent entering his third year, and second-year back Deuce Vaughn, a Cedar Ridge legend who was signed as a possible third-down option, are the only Dallas running backs under contract. So, the organization stuck with a pat hand during the free agency bonanza.

It signals that Jones will either take one of those running backs in the first two rounds or bring in one of the remaining free agents. The latter idea won’t play well to his adoring public.

One name we haven’t mentioned is former Cowboy Ezekiel Elliott, a free agent who rushed for 642 yards and played every game with the New England Patriots last season. I believe Zeke would walk from Foxborough to Irving to reunite with his former quarterback and current best friend Dak Prescott.

Coincidentally, Elliott is the last running back that Jerry drafted in the first round. Since he bought the club in 1989, he’s taken only three backs in the first round: Emmitt Smith (1990, 17th overall), Felix Jones (2008, 22nd) and Elliott (2016, fourth overall). Sherman Williams (1995) and Julius Jones (2004) are the only two second-rounders.

The biggest question has to be if Jerry was legitimately asleep at the wheel over the last 10 days or if he's just a cagey 81-year-old fox with a master plan to bring in the franchise’s next great runner. I’d love to say the latter, but many disgruntled fans are skeptical since the Cowboys haven’t been to an NFC championship game since the 1995 Super Bowl season.

That’s 29 years and counting.

Forget the Ray Benson comparison. This sounds more like Rip Van Winkle.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas player Jonathon Brooks could be answer for sleepy Dallas Cowboys