For the first time this season, the Dallas Cowboys offense looked just how coach Brian Schottenheimer wanted it to look, a team that can hurt any defense in the passing game with Dak Prescott under center and two star receivers on the boundaries, plus a monster offensive line clearing room for a steamroller running back, Javonte Williams. Granted, it was against a banged-up Eagles bunch, but Dallas racked up a season-high 416 yards, with 212 coming from Prescott in the passing game and a season-high 204 yards coming from Williams and the running game.

The 155 yards from Williams was more than he had gained in his three previous games combined, and also marked his fifth straight game with a touchdown. He had a 34-yard run in the mix, his longest of the season by far.

Javonte Williams Nearly Retired

If the Cowboys are to accomplish what they hope to accomplish–a lengthy playoff run ending in s Super Bowl appearance–Williams will need to be a key figure. The team gave him a three-year, $24 million contract this offseason after he came through with a breakout season in his first go-round in Dallas in 2025, totaling 1,201 yards in 16 games.

But this week in an appearance on teammate Caleb Downs‘ podcast, Williams revealed he almost did not suit up with Dallas–that after playing his first four seasons in Denver, he was ready to call it a career and retire from the NFL.

As he said (via RJ Ochoa of Blogging the Boys): “I was really about to just hang up the cleats.”

He explained: “I really had lost love for the game. I had already bought a crib … I’m like I might just start my real estate or something.”

Cowboys Gave a ‘Rebirth’

The big issue for Williams prior to his arrival in Dallas on a one-year Cowboys contract was a torn ACL he suffered in his second season, four games in. He had averaged 4.4 yards per carry and tallied 903 yards as a backup as a rookie, but after his injury, his numbers dropped precipitously. He ran for just 3.6 yards per carry in two seasons with the Broncos after coming back from the injury, and the team moved on from him last winter.

But his chance with the Cowboys rejuvenated him.

As he said, via Ochoa: “No disrespect to nobody in Denver or nothing like that, I respect everybody over there, I respect what they got going on … just coming to Dallas it felt like it’s a new awakening. I felt like a rebirth.”

“Just leaving there and coming here, the coaches believing in me, everybody just like lifting me up. It kind of felt like UNC all over again. Me just going out there just playing, having fun. I just fell in love with the game again.”