National Football League

Zeke is back in Dallas, but Cowboys' running back problem hasn't gone away

Published Apr. 29, 2024 12:02 p.m. ET

As the clock ticked away and the calendar turned and the Dallas Cowboys still didn't have a starting running back on their roster, Jerry Jones was always defiant. He insisted he had a plan.

It just wasn't a very good plan.

His strategy for reviving the Dallas running game neared completion on Monday when old friend Ezekiel Elliott agreed to terms on a one-year deal to officially re-sign with the Cowboys. And it's a great story, really, because Elliott is a fan favorite, was once a great player in Dallas, and he'll surely be welcomed by his once-and-former teammates in the locker room. He's also a remarkable athlete who has 11,553 total yards in his eight-year NFL career.

But he's also about to turn 29 years old and has shown quite a decline over the last two seasons, while playing a position that when the fall comes, it usually comes fast. And Jones chose him after waving off one of the best free-agent running back classes ever — a market that included Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, Aaron Jones, D'Andre Swift, Joe Mixon and Austin Ekeler. There was even a strong Plan B list that included Zach Moss, Gus Edwards and Devin Singletary. And there was the NFL Draft.

The Cowboys could have even re-signed Tony Pollard, who got a three-year, $21.75 million contract from the Tennessee Titans. But if they were intent on replacing him after his disappointing 1,005-yard season last year, there were far better options than signing a player who is much closer to being in the Cowboys Ring of Honor than he is to his prime.

There is, after all, a really good reason why running backs have been devalued all across the NFL over the last decade or so. They tend to age quickly because of the pounding they take. They get hurt a little more often. They tend to slow down just as players at other positions are speeding into their prime. It's why, for the most part, teams prefer to spend money on their offensive line and plug in someone with young, healthy legs to run the ball behind it.

Elliott has run the ball 2,065 times and caught 356 passes in his eight seasons, which means he's taken about 2,300 hits, not to mention all the collisions from when he was blocking. There is no doubt that pounding has taken its toll.

In fact, that's a big reason why the Cowboys cut him last May, rather than pay him the $10.4 million salary he was due, coming off a season in which he ran for just 876 yards (albeit with 12 touchdowns) as part of a backfield timeshare. The Cowboys decided Pollard, then still recovering from a broken leg and badly sprained ankle, was a better investment — in part because he's three years younger.

So Elliott signed with the New England Patriots, where his decline continued. He ran the ball 184 times, but only for 642 yards and 3.5 yards per carry — both career lows, eclipsing the lows he set the year before. It seemed pretty clear then to everyone that he was going to finish his career as a part-time running back, if he continued playing at all.

But Jones apparently saw gold in the way Elliott finished. "I thought he played well the last part of the season at New England," he said. "Very well." It takes some rose-colored glasses to see that, though. Elliott started the last five games for the Patriots, rushing 72 times for 213 yards (2.95 per carry). He also caught 27 passes for 159 yards.

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Financially, at least, Elliott is low-risk. His one-year deal only includes a reported $2 million guaranteed. And if adding a low-risk complementary piece to the backfield was Jones' master plan it would've been fine. No doubt they could use the help, especially in their short-yardage running game.

But it sure doesn't look like Elliott is just a complementary piece in a backfield that is currently highlighted by Rico Dawdle (89 carries, 361 yards and two touchdowns last season), Deuce Vaughn (23-40-0), and journeyman Royce Freeman (77-319-2). Even if they go with a running back committee — as they are expected to do — Elliott will almost certainly take the lead.

It's as if they were waiting for Elliott all along to fill that role. They didn't even take a running back in the draft when everyone assumed they had to. The closest they came was when, after Round 1 was over, Jones told the world how much he loved Texas running back Jonathon Brooks, who might have been their second-round pick if the Carolina Panthers didn't beat them to it 10 picks earlier.

Jones dismissed any concern by saying "I've seen teams win the Super Bowl with running backs that they traded for midseason." That, of course, is much more of a hope than a plan, too. It counts on a team with a strong, healthy running back, probably on an expiring contract, deciding they're out of playoff contention by October. It also counts on the Cowboys being the highest bidder — something they rarely seem to be.

Maybe that miracle happens. But the real miracle they need now is a revival of Elliott, because for the moment he really is the Cowboys' only hope. They may need him to be close to the player he was in 2021, his last 1,000-yard season (1,002 yards, 10 touchdowns), when he averaged 4.2 yards per carry. Because the running game was a huge Achilles heel for them last season. They relied far too much on Dak Prescott's arm and CeeDee Lamb's playmaking ability. They couldn't run effectively or explosively. Their short-yardage and goal-line running game was weak.

They simply couldn't lean on their rushing attack in big spots where they needed it, which is why later in the season they sometimes didn't even try.

Maybe Elliott is the cavalry. Jones certainly thinks so. He even said "He's good enough to be a starter," which he now almost certainly is.

But the Cowboys can only hope that's the case. And hope is not a strategy, and the past is not the future. Elliott's homecoming might make for a warm and fuzzy moment and bring back some wonderful memories. But the "all in" Cowboys needed something more helpful than that.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.