IRVING, Texas - That rookie running back is something, isn't he? That's a football player, now. Runs hard, runs smooth, and he's a threat on special teams. This guy might have been a steal where they took him.

Oh, yeah, and Felix Jones looks good so far too.

Felix the Cat will be the one who gets the most headlines. It works that way when you're a first round draft choice, and when you don't appear to run as much as you glide, and when you score a touchdown the first time you touch the ball in an NFL game. It works that way when you're as explosive as dynamite.

But speaking of dynamite, the Cowboys appear to have made a terrific Choice when they drafted Tashard.

This was not an accident. When Choice was still on the fourth-round board, the Cowboys knew they needed someone with his skill set. If Felix Jones was the perfect complement to Marion Barber, Tashard Choice is the end of the game grinder Dallas needed to give Barber a rest.

Sometimes, gems come to you later in the NFL draft. Barber, remember, was a fourth rounder like Choice. It's too early to claim this Choice as good as the one spent on Barber three years ago, but it's not too early to reflect on their draft-day thinking.

"He was the best back in the ACC," Cowboys owner-general manager Jerry Jones recalled after Wednesday's practice. "He'd had issues in both knees. That was why he went in the fourth round."

Those issues, by the way, cost him all of a game and a half. He's also a tough Choice. And had he not had those issues? Where would he have gone in the draft, Jerry?

"He was comparable to (Jamaal Charles) from Texas and Chris Johnson, just without that kind of speed," said Jones. "A first day pick absolutely."

Johnson was the 24th pick in the draft by Tennessee; Charles went No. 73 overall to Kansas City in the third round.

One of the visions the Cowboys had when they drafted Choice, according to someone (not Jones) in the room at the time, was an every-down style back who could come into the game in the fourth quarter when they wanted to put it away. Choice, it was and is believed, could sustain the late-game pounding to which Barber need not be exposed and still move the chains.

A prerequisite, though, would have to be a willingness to throw his body into the special teams fray, which this Tashard Choice has already proven he will do. The blocked punt in the preseason game in Denver is an example of the kind of simple want-to it takes to play special teams. There was a special teams tackle in Cleveland. Only three players are listed first team on all four of the Cowboys' major special teams (punt coverage and return, kickoff coverage and return). One of them is Tashard Choice.

Special teams is a part of the game Choice embraces.

"It's (all) out, a different attitude," the rookie said in the locker room on Monday. "You play special teams totally different than you play offense. On offense you're more focused in. You study the defense. You know what you're going to have. Special teams is fast, all out for 40, 50 yards, and you can't let anyone beat you one on one."

Everyone wants to be in the end zone. But Choice knows that to get there, he has to have the ball, and to get that, he has to take as much pride in covering a kick as in running the ball.

"You have to," he says. "You have to go in there to show the coaches what you can do, and then you have to go make plays for the other ten guys on that field. On special teams, if one player messes up, it can be a big run. If you don't make that block, it can be the difference between a 20-yard kickoff return and a touchdown. You've got to pride yourself on that, because what you show on special teams will carry over on offense. If you show you've got the discipline to work hard on special teams, then you get a chance to run the football."

Tashard Choice has that because he has one of those traits coaches love and can't teach: he just loves football. He is a Football Player. Not everyone who plays football is a Football Player. That may not make sense to you, but there's not a coach around who doesn't know the difference.

Where did Choice develop that élan for the game?

"From a little age, man," he says with a grin. "I've been playing football since I was young. My older brother dragged me along and I just love it, especially the games. Practice is hard. Training camp is hard work, but when you get in a game, it's fun. It feels easy. Last week, my first game, I felt like a kid out there."

What makes Tashard such a good Choice, what sets him apart in addition to that verve for the game, is his intelligence. After leaving Hampton, Georgia to sign with Oklahoma, he was smart enough to see that after he redshirted as a freshman, the Sooners had a fellow named Adrian Peterson, and it might be time to move on. So Choice went home to Atlanta, where he was Academic All-ACC (he'd been Academic All-Big 12 as a redshirt freshman).

Jerry Jones, being careful with his comparison, sees flashes of another back he once drafted when he looks at Choice: Emmitt Smith.

"I'm not saying he's Emmitt," Jones is quick to point out. "But he has some of Emmitt's characteristics. North-south runner. Sees the field real well, makes good decisions running. Finds the soft spot and gets there."

Sunday in Cleveland, when Barber had lit up the Browns and needed to leave the game with bruised ribs, it was right up Choice's alley to close out the day. When the clock ran inside four minutes, Choice got the last three carries. His 15-yard run on third and five with 3:48 to play sealed the deal.

Nor was he nervous in his first fourth-quarter situation.

"It actually felt calm to me," Choice says. "I was cool out there. We'd practiced it so much and worked on it so much, it becomes a habit. Once you do that, you just go out and execute."

Choice has watched Barber and learned from him.

"He works so hard," Choice marvels. "He busted his tail all off-season. You don't know when it's your last play, so bust your tail. If you do that, at least you can sleep at night knowing you busted your tail every play and left it on the field."

And if circumstances ****** that Tashard Choice had a big load to carry with the nation watching against the vaunted Eagles on Monday night?

"Hooooo, I'm ready," he whistled. "It's Monday night. Got to be ready! It's my first one ever, so I got to be ready to go."

Yeah, the Cowboys may have gotten a steal in Felix Jones. And in the fourth round, it appears they made a very, very good Choice