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Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott Gets Absurd Ranking From Former All-Pro

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Getty Dallas Cowboys Running Back Ezekiel Elliott

In his three NFL seasons, Ezekiel Elliott has been the league’s rushing champ twice. The one season he wasn’t he missed six games due to a suspension and still almost eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark.

That apparently was not enough to land the Dallas Cowboys’ star as a top three running back.

NFL.com’s Maurice Jones Drew — a former All-Pro with the Jacksonville Jaguars — ranked all of the league’s starting backs. He placed Zeke No. 4 on the list.

Here’s what MJD had to say about Elliott:

Entering Year 4, Zeke will do what he’s always done: eat, eat and eat some more. The Cowboys’ offense runs through the two-time Pro Bowl selectee, who had a career- and league-high 381 touches in 2018. Elliott has been wildly productive, posting the fifth-highest average for rushing yards per game (101.2) by a player in his first three seasons in NFL history. He also became more of an asset in the pass game last season (career-high 77 catches) and should continue to improve this part of his game moving forward.
The players above Elliott were Jets RB Le’Veon Bell, who just took an entire year off, New Orleans’ Alvin Kamara, who has never been a true, full-time No. 1 back, and second-year starter Saquon Barkley, who should likely have another stellar year, although there’s not a lot of expectations for the Giants having team success.
Last season, Elliott had 1,434 yards and also set a Cowboys’ franchise record for a running back with 77 catches.
To not have Elliott in the top three is interesting, to say the least.
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As Jones Drew points out, Elliott has been the centerpiece of the Cowboys offense and has been more productive than any other back since entering the league.
Elliott has had such a large workload, that first-year offensive coordinator Kellen Moore’s focus is to try to take some weight off the RB’s shoulders.

“At the end of the day, we want to get him as many touches as we can. At the same time, you got to recognize what a 16-plus game season is,” Moore told reporters at OTAs.  “We’ll see how it progresses (with the other RBs), but if we can get it to Zeke, we’re gonna get it to Zeke.”

Elliott is expected to get an extension this offseason, although he has said he’s not worried about it. He’s also facing possible discipline from the NFL following an incident at a music festival in Las Vegas earlier this offseason.

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J.R. DeGroote covers the Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Lakers for Heavy.com. He covered local and statewide sports as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and has decades of experience in digital media with previous stops at SB Nation and Bleacher Report. He has won multiple state, regional and national honors for sports reporting and photography. More about J.R. DeGroote

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