In what has been a surprise to everyone not named Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys have been awful on the ground this season. They head into Week 11 with just 753 yards rushing, which is somehow not the worst in the NFL, but still the second-lowest output.
The good news is that they finally realize that Rico Dowdle is their best option. The bad news is that he’s not someone who can carry the load on his own consistently — and there’s no help whatsoever behind him.
That includes Ezekiel Elliott, who Jones re-signed this offseason. Jones stated that Elliott was still a featured back in the league, and felt confident rolling into the season with him as the No. 1 guy.
Not only was Jones speaking out of turn when he said this during the offseason, but he inexplicably continues to sing the praises of Zeke. Jones stated at one point they were “saving him” for a potential playoff run (apparently) and then delusionally said the team liked what they saw from No. 15.
For the rest of the world, we’ve seen a running back in a severe decline. It’s gotten so bad that Elliott can become the first running back in league history to have his yards per game drop in nine consecutive seasons.
As a rookie in 2016, Elliott led the NFL with 108.7 yards per game. He had 98.3 in 2017, which was a decline, but he still led the league. That was true again in 2018 when he went down to 95.6.
The sharpest decline for Elliott was in 2020 when he fell from 84.8 yards per contest in 2019 to 65.3. That was also the year after he signed a laughable six-year extension with Dallas that handcuffed their salary cap for several seasons.
In his second stint with Dallas, Zeke has 171 yards on 54 attempts in eight games. Not only is that a career-low 21.4 yards per game, but he’s averaging 3.2 per attempt. That’s also a personal low and the third year in a row that he’s seen his average per carry fall.
