No Surprises for Dallas Cowboys and Ezekiel Elliott

As soon as the Dallas Cowboys took running back Ezekiel Elliott in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft, I predicted that they would make it to the NFC Championship game. It’s great that the team has quarterback Tony Romo and receiver Dez Bryant back but the running game will rule 2016.

They’ll get to rest a defense that has improved since 2014 and take a lot of pressure off Romo. And as good as that offensive line is at opening up running lanes, they have no reason not to. Then you have Elliott, who you can already tell is a better running back than DeMarco Murray ever will be.

There’s no need for surprise, the Cowboys are going to just line up, come off the ball, give it to Elliott, and dare opposing defenses to stop it. David Helman of DallasCowboys.com has said that Elliott will have somewhere in the range of 280 to 300 carries in 2016.

Yes, they plan to turn the rookie running back into a workhorse right away. So we can expect Elliott to be right up there with Adrian Peterson (327 carries in 2015) and Doug Martin (288 carries in 2015). We can’t expect the Cowboys not to do what worked so well for them in 2014.

Head coach Jason Garrett had Murray carry the ball 392 times, the most for anyone in a season in the last 10 years, that year. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if he got as many carries if not more than Murray had. And with his receiving skills, 430 touches shouldn’t surprise anyone.