The Cowboys, it appears, are dumfounded by the fact that running back Ezekiel Elliott is dumbfounded by the lack of carries he’s gotten in short-yardage situations. In fact, according to team owner Jerry Jones, no one really is dumbfounded at all.
“That’s an exaggeration. ‘Dumbfounded’ is an exaggeration,” Jones said on the Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan this week. “It mischaracterizes — it’s a bad description of how he feels about things. He’s very much aware of the part of the running game that he’s involved with.”
The report in question comes from veteran Cowboys beat writer Clarence Hill, who has been covering the team for the better part of three decades. After Elliott talked to reporters this week, Hill wrote on Twitter/X:
“Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott confirmed he has talked to the coaches about his role and remains dumbfounded by his lack of opportunities at least as red zone back.”
Maybe dumbfounded is, indeed, an exaggeration. But there is no doubt that the Cowboys have been steadily moving away from Elliott when arranging priorities in the team’s running-back “committee.” After Elliott and Rico Dowdle split carries for the first two weeks of the season, the last two weeks have seen Dowdle take on the lion’s share of the carries.
He has had just 11 carries in the last two weeks, while Dowdle has had 31.
Ezekiel Elliott Spoke With Cowboys Coaches
Elliott spoke with reporters and noted that he has gone to see coaches to try to figure out where, exactly, he fits in. The Cowboys have been using the passing game and fullback Hunter Luepke more and more in short-yardage situations.
The expectation was that, even if Elliott’s carries dropped, he would still be called upon to convert third-and-short situations. But that has not been the case.
“I’ve talked a little bit,” Elliott said, via the Dallas Morning News. “But kinda let it play itself out.”
He went on: “I just focus on being a good teammate. I’ve been focusing on continuing to help lead this team and I’m not making it about me, it’s about this football team (winning) football games.”
Elliott, of course, played the first seven years of his career with the Cowboys, and was a Pro Bowler three times. But he began to slow down and the team let him walk in free agency last season, when he joined the Patriots.
With the Cowboys failing to draft a running back and allowing Tony Pollard to leave in free agency, the team brought back Elliott on a minimum deal in April.
Cowboys ‘Saving’ Zeke for Later?
After shooting down the report that Elliott was “dumfounded” by his lack of reps, Jones went on to say that the plan for the Cowboys is to preserve Elliott for later in the NFL season. That is an odd strategy, given the fact that the lack of a running game here in the early season is adding pressure on quarterback Dak Prescott.
But Jones pointed to Dowdle’s injury history as one reason to be cautious with Elliott.
“I can’t emphasize this enough: We’re saving him,” Jones said, via CBS Sports. “And we should be. We want him for — Rico [Dowdle] is an outstanding running back. … [but] his big problem has been what? He’s had trouble with injuries throughout his career. So it’d be madness to just rely on him for the duration of the season and into the playoffs … Zeke is there, he will be there, because we want to protect him during this particular time.”
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Cowboys Clap Back on ‘Dumfounded’ Ezekiel Elliott Report