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Todd Archer, ESPN Staff WriterAug 27, 2024, 06:00 AM ET
- Todd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas Cowboys. Archer has covered the NFL since 1997 and Dallas since 2003. He joined ESPN in 2010. You can follow him on Twitter at @toddarcher.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Another preseason has ended without Ezekiel Elliott getting any carries.
The last time he carried the ball in a preseason game was 2017, his second year with the Dallas Cowboys, when he was 22 years old and coming off a rookie season in which he led the NFL with 1,631 rushing yards.
Rico Dowdle, expected to be a large part of this season’s backfield committee with Elliott, had three carries this preseason and did not play in the final two games. Malik Davis, Deuce Vaughn, Royce Freeman, Snoop Conner and Nathaniel Peat all got carries as Elliott watched from the sideline.
Now 29, with more than 2,000 carries and 8,904 yards to his credit, the team limited Elliott’s summer work with an eye on a 17-game regular season and what it hopes will be a longer playoff run than any Dallas team has known since 1995, when the Cowboys won Super Bowl XXX.
“First of all, you see the power and you know that is there,” owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. “He is the first one to tell you that he wanted to get in football shape during the camp. He didn’t need to learn how to hit anybody or didn’t need to learn how to punish defensive backs or a linebacker. He knows how to do that. We don’t need to see that. We know that he understands the system. He’s very good at that. All of those things are there. We don’t need to see what Zeke can do in one-on-one tackling drills out here.”
The Cowboys ramped up Elliott’s activities as training camp wore on in Oxnard, California.
In the first four padded practices, Elliott had 13 carries. In the final four padded practices, he had 24 carries.
“He’s run the football a lot in his career, so we’re very conscientious of that for how much work he gets,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “But also, we’ve got to make sure he gets enough to make sure he feels like he’s ready.”
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The Cowboys are not asking Elliott to be the running back he was for most of his first tenure with the organization (2016-22), when Elliott had two rushing titles, four 1,000-yard seasons (and two more with at least 979 yards), 85 touchdowns, 32 100-yard rushing games and three Pro Bowl appearances.
They will ask him to work in a group with usage that could change weekly depending on the game plan and the opponent, starting with the Sept. 8 season opener at the Cleveland Browns.
Last season with the New England Patriots, Elliott worked in concert with Rhamondre Stevenson. When Stevenson was hurt down the stretch, Elliott became the lead running back, which led Jones to say those games showed him that Elliott still had the makeup of a No. 1 runner. However, Elliott averaged more than 3.1 yards per carry only once in the final six games. His longest gain was 9 yards. He scored just one rushing touchdown. He had two receiving touchdowns on 31 receptions for 199 yards.
While in Oxnard, Elliott’s best days came in two practices against the Los Angeles Rams, but there were occasions in the later practices when he displayed jump cuts and a burst to the back side of a run.
“There’s never a question about him having juice,” McCarthy said. “I mean, No. 1, his understanding of the position of the offense. Zeke’s a very instinctive, intelligent football player.”
Most discussions about Elliott veered to what he means to the running back group and the team as a whole.
“Zeke’s a huge asset in the locker room,” McCarthy said.
Said running backs coach Jeff Blasko, “He’s a great leader, great mentor for the young guys. Great sounding board for me. It’s been phenomenal having him in the meeting space.”
Ultimately, however, the Cowboys will need Elliott to produce on the field. In his final two years with the Cowboys, he was slowed by an injury to the PCL in his right knee.
He enters his ninth season healthy.
“I feel like you guys ask me this every year: ‘Is this the freshest you’ve felt?’ I think definitely so,” Elliott said. “This year we’ve definitely taken a lot different approach, just very much so watching my practice reps, trying to limit the hits I’m taking, trying to keep my legs fresh. I feel really good in camp right now, but the goal is to feel really good Week 14 or Week 17 or Week 1 of the playoffs.”
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Elliott’s biggest strength will be in short-yardage and goal-line situations. When needing 1 yard over the past two seasons, Elliott has converted a first down or scored a touchdown 23 of 24 times. Tony Pollard, who led the Cowboys in rushing the past two seasons and signed with the Tennessee Titans in free agency, converted 21 of 27 such attempts.
Elliott believes his success in short-yardage situations began when he started playing football when he was 7 years old.
“I think, one, attitude. Just the attitude of I won’t be denied,” Elliott said. “Two, just fundamentals. Keep my pads down. I’d say my first Oklahoma drill I ran with my pads high, and I got speared in the stomach, lost my breath. Ever since then, I’ve had great pad level.”
If the Cowboys believe Elliott can resemble the back who ripped off 36 gains of at least 20 yards in his first five seasons, they might be fooling themselves.
Among the 52 primary running backs with at least 150 rushes the past two seasons, Elliott’s five runs of 20 yards or more is tied with Dalvin Cook, Rachaad White and Jerome Ford for 38th, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Elliott is one of three players (with Alvin Kamara and White) with at least 400 rushes over the past two seasons yet no more than five runs of at least 20 yards. Kamara has the fewest with three. Christian McCaffrey leads the NFL with 18 rushes of 20 yards or more the past two seasons.
“It’s Zeke, man,” right tackle Terence Steele said. “Just his charisma out here, we feed off of his energy, so it’s awesome. I mean he’s just a powerful running back, so it’s good seeing him back there.”
That will have to turn into production. Without any work in the preseason, it is difficult to gauge what Elliott can still be, but his teammates believe.
“Zeke’s a game-time player,” edge rusher Micah Parsons said. “Zeke’s one of my favorite players of all time. I think what he shows out here [in practice] and what he does on game day is like night and day. I don’t think people take into consideration what Zeke really does. Zeke is a trucker. He trucks people. He creates movement. You’re not going to see that out here when we’re just tagging off, so you don’t really see how great Zeke is until we’re in person.”
