In what’s become a never-ending conversation over the past decade, the Dallas Cowboys’ handling of the running back position has been in the spotlight again this offseason. The past week, it felt inevitable that the Cowboys would draft a running back. Three days of the draft went by, and the most notable running back news was the Cowboys’ heightened interest in re-signing 2016 first-round pick, Ezekiel Elliott.
Monday, the team followed through. Elliott is back in Dallas on a one-year deal for a reported $3 million, with $2 million guaranteed. It’s somewhat of a lightning-rod move but one that’s … not bad?
Look, Jerry Jones and the Cowboys’ front office have done plenty to create the fan base’s negativity — the criticism is often with merit. Dallas has not handled the running back position perfectly this offseason. Tony Pollard walked in free agency and signed a three-year deal for $24 million with the Tennessee Titans. For the vast majority, there were no qualms with that decision, especially after Pollard’s performance last season. But the Cowboys could have kicked the tires on a veteran in free agency.
Multiple waves of free agency came and went, and the Cowboys did nothing. Finally, they signed Royce Freeman, who is hardly guaranteed a spot on the final roster. Seven rounds of the draft passed. Dallas did not select a running back.
Since the end of the DeMarco Murray era, the Cowboys have lived on extremes at running back.
They went with a committee of Joseph Randle and Robert Turbin with Darren McFadden as the bell cow (1,089 rushing yards) in 2015 after Murray’s departure. That rushing attack, especially for Jason Garrett’s preferences, left a lot of meat on the bone, so the Cowboys overreacted and selected Elliott with the No. 4 pick of the 2016 draft. When Elliott held out in 2019, the Cowboys blinked first and handed him one of the richest running back deals in NFL history. Once they parted ways with Elliott last spring, they played Pollard on the franchise tag, smartly avoiding a long-term mistake as they did with Elliott but still making Pollard one of the top earners in the league at the position.
Ezekiel Elliott ran for 8,262 yards and 68 touchdowns in his first seven seasons in the NFL with the Cowboys. (Tim Heitman / USA Today)
The running back position has fallen off a cliff in today’s NFL. Teams that have won Super Bowls in recent years have done so with the likes of Isiah Pacheco, Cam Akers, Leonard Fournette (in his reclamation years), Damien Williams and Sony Michel as the face of their running back rooms. Keep going back and it’s much of the same. You don’t need Emmitt Smith and Terrell Davis carrying the rock to lift the Lombardi anymore.
To have a levelheaded approach to this move, one must check prior biases at the door. For most people, the negative feelings that came to mind about Elliott whenever he was mentioned from 2019 through 2022 had to do with his contract. As a teammate, especially after he worked through some of the immaturity of his earlier years, Elliott was great. As a player, he was diminished but still a capable running back who could fit into an NFL backfield.
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In 2022, Elliott’s final season in Dallas, he averaged 3.8 yards per carry, dipping below the 4-yard mark for the first time in his career. Last year in New England, that dropped to 3.5 yards per attempt and a career low in yards for the season with 672. It’s been a far cry from the way Elliott’s career began. He topped 1,300 rushing yards with at least 4.5 yards per carry in three of his first four seasons.
Now, his contract lines up with who Elliott is as a player. Getting his leadership and veteran presence in a young room is a bonus. That he’s in favor with a lot of the key playmakers on the team, including the starting quarterback, doesn’t hurt.
Ezekiel Elliott: 2-season snapshot
| TEAM | YR | G | CAR | YDS | YPC | TD | REC | YDS | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2023 |
17 |
184 |
642 |
3.5 |
3 |
51 |
313 |
2 |
|
|
2022 |
15 |
231 |
876 |
3.8 |
12 |
17 |
92 |
0 |
The only slight red flag is Jones’ assertion and belief that Elliott is a starting, RB1 back in the league. But the contract Elliott received speaks for itself, and given the source, that evaluation of Elliott’s talents was probably just as much a marketing strategy to sell to the fans as it was an honest evaluation of talent. Mike McCarthy may never say it publicly, but he’s seen Elliott’s drop in talent as closely as anybody. Coaching in a contract year, it would be surprising if McCarthy channeled usage of any player to protect feelings.
Regardless of Elliott’s output last season — toward the end of the year, which Jones mysteriously pointed to as a source of encouragement, or holistically — Elliott does bring value to the Cowboys’ offense. He’s a smart player who should be solid in pass protection and potentially great in short-yardage situations. The offensive line in front of him is shaping up to at least be formidable. Maybe Elliott even breaks off the occasional run to the third level, though more than likely, it’ll be some combination of Rico Dowdle, Malik Davis, Freeman or Deuce Vaughn doing that part.
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The Cowboys’ offense doesn’t have ambiguity to it like it did in 2019. This offense, for better or worse, runs through Dak Prescott’s right arm and CeeDee Lamb’s hands. Prescott isn’t rocking a $60 million cap hit to take a backseat to a running game anymore. Even with a struggling unit last year, Prescott was the NFL’s MVP runner-up and Lamb one of the best receivers (not to mention the emergence of Jake Ferguson). The Cowboys boast a full-fledged passing offense that needs the running game to show up situationally.
Elliott is capable of doing that.
One can argue that drafting Elliott as high as the Cowboys did in 2016 was a mistake. Giving Elliott a massive extension in 2019 certainly was a mistake, one the Cowboys are still paying for with a $6 million dead cap hit in 2024. Those were yesterday’s errors. Today, bringing in Elliott is fine. It’s not fantastic and it’s not awful; unlike the Cowboys’ approach to the running back position, it’s somewhere in the middle.
(Top photo of Elliott: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)
