Getty Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott enters his sixth NFL season in 2021.
Ezekiel Elliott and the Dallas Cowboys are hoping — nay, preparing — to own the NFL’s top-ranked offense in 2021.
That expectation privately was made clear by offensive coordinator Kellen Moore at the onset of training camp. It was echoed publicly by the team’s $90 million running back on Wednesday, August 18.
“In in our first meeting, Coach Kellen said our No. 1 goal this year is to be the No. 1 offense,” Elliott revealed to reporters after practice, via the official Cowboys website.
The goal was within reach to begin the 2020 campaign; Dallas sat atop most statistical columns, including total offense and passing yards, before quarterback Dak Prescott suffered a season-ending ankle injury last October. The club ended the year ranked 14th and eighth in those same categories.
Prescott’s absence largely contributed to the downturn. But the blame also laid at the feet of Elliott, who posted career-lows across the board: rushing yards (979), yards per carry (4.0), yards per game (65.3), and attempts per game (16.3). He also tied a personal-worst mark with only six rushing touchdowns.
Poorly conditioned by his own admission, Elliott dropped about 10 pounds this offseason; he’s slimmer, quicker, healthier. And ready to heed Moore’s call.
“I feel real good. I feel healthy. I feel like I’m in good shape,” he affirmed Wednesday, via ESPN’s Todd Archer. “I like where my speed and my quickness is. I like how comfortable I am in the offense. So I think I’m ready to go.”
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Chemistry (Non-)Issue?
Anybody with a functioning brain stem realizes the Cowboys are primed to light up NFL scoreboards this fall. Elliott is merely one cog in a machine that features Prescott, of course, as well as his troika of interchangeably elite wide receivers: Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb and Michael Gallup.
What’s giving pause to prognosticators, however, is the recent state of the collective. Prescott, battling a throwing shoulder strain, hasn’t practiced fully since July 28. Cooper, who underwent offseason ankle surgery, missed a chunk of camp on the Physically Unable to Perform list.
The starting offense is unlikely to take the field together until the September 9 regular-season opener at Tampa — the first time since Prescott shattered his ankle.
“Yeah, we haven’t played together in a while,” Elliott said, per Pro Football Talk. “We have a lot of veteran pieces and a lot of guys who have played a lot of football. So it does suck we are not able to practice all together right now, but we will pick up when he gets back. It’s definitely exciting to see him back out there throwing in practice, kind of easing himself back into drills.”
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Moore Anticipating ‘Fun’ Offense
Some believe the Cowboys’ wunderkind play-caller is in an unenviable position, responsible for pacifying the many aforementioned weapons on a game-by-game (or perhaps snap-by-snap) basis. Moore, though, is embracing the challenge head-on.
“It’s a fun task,” he said last week, via USA TODAY. “We got a lot of guys that we feel really, really confident about. And so it’s a matter of viewing this thing [with] a little bit wider lens. This is a long season. Everyone’s hopes is to be in it in February. So we’re going to need all of these guys at certain times in certain games. I really don’t care. There may be a certain game we have to hand the ball off to Zeke [Elliott] 40 times. I don’t care if we’ve got to throw it 50 times. I don’t care.
“Every game’s going to present different challenges and different opportunities. We’ve got an opportunity to utilize all of these guys. And throughout the season, there is going to be different opportunities that Blake [Jarwin], Dalton [Schultz] may have- a tight end opportunity or a matchup- and maybe we need to spread it out a little bit more and utilize these receivers. We’re going to be able to utilize it all. It’s going to be fun.”
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