OXNARD, Calif. — The Cowboys’ defense was back at it with the double A-gap pressures.
Linebacker Eric Kendricks inched toward one of the gaps between the center and guard, a safety creeping up from the backfield to attack the other.
Edge rusher Micah Parsons stood behind them, ready to threaten.
The Cowboys’ offense hadn’t discussed this.
“What any team’s gonna wanna do [is] block Micah,” quarterback Dak Prescott told Yahoo Sports. “But for him being off the ball and in that look, it made it complicated for us.”
So Prescott asked three offensive linemen to keep an eye out for five potential rushers. His offensive linemen weren’t the only ones to answer the call. Leave it to running back Ezekiel Elliott to chip Parsons.
“Really what makes it work is Zeke being a pro,” Prescott said. “His guy leaves, [he] follows and he’s able to track Micah. Boom, I step up, throw the in-cut backside to Brandin Cooks at the time.”
Success.
Executing a training camp play hardly guarantees success in the regular season. But on that double A-gap pressure — a look Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer has increasingly challenged the offense with throughout camp — Elliott performed a job his quarterback was still praising a week and a half later, despite its complete absence in the stat line.
The 2016 fourth overall draft pick wasn’t hurdling defenders as he did in his early years. Elliott wasn’t finding a crease to penetrate as he did as recently as two seasons ago, when he scored 12 touchdowns even as his efficiency dipped.
But Elliott’s block allowed Prescott the extra seconds he needed to complete the pass. Elliott’s deep understanding of draft classmate Prescott’s nuances, and of the game in which he’s entering Year 9 as a pro, translated to arriving at the right place at the right time.
Dallas expects more of that as the season approaches.
So while skepticism about Elliott’s explosiveness and perhaps his gross production is warranted, the Cowboys view Elliott’s role in their ecosystem more favorably than the broader public.
“Not all running backs have that much football brainpower,” offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer told Yahoo Sports. “[Elliott] sees the game like a quarterback. He sees the big picture, which is really cool.
“The tough yards, the grind-it-out yards, the four-minute [offense]? Don’t sleep on him. He still has plenty left in his tank.”
Why Cowboys and Zeke divorced then remarried
The Cowboys released Elliott ahead of the 2023 season in attempts to shed an expensive contract that was arguably outdated relative to market value.
Elliott received a six-year, $90 million extension in 2019 after a holdout not unlike receiver CeeDee Lamb’s current absence. He was still punishing in that first season back, rushing for 1,357 yards and 12 touchdowns while averaging 4.5 yards per carry a season after leading the league in rushes, rushing yards and total touches.
But soon, Elliott’s efficiency slipped. From 2020 to 2022, Elliott averaged 4 yards per carry down from his rookie 5. He still scored a whopping 32 total touchdowns in three years but by 2022 attacked as a one-two punch alongside 2019 fourth-rounder Tony Pollard.
The Cowboys valued the chance to wear defenses down with Elliott’s power and then confuse defenders’ tackling angles with Pollard’s elusiveness. But after Pollard totaled 1,378 yards from scrimmage and 12 touchdowns, the Cowboys decided the more-expensive Elliott was expendable.
Dallas still won 10 games, leading the league in points scored and ranking fifth in yards.
But Elliott’s absence was noticeable. The Cowboys’ rushing attack slipped from ninth in 2022 to 14th and its rushing scores from second to 15th.
A year after converting on a league-high 71.43% of red-zone trips, Dallas succeeded on just 56.34% (14th) last season.
In New England with a far less talented offense and offensive line, Elliott compiled 955 yards and five touchdowns from scrimmage.
So for a veteran-minimum $1.25 million salary, the Cowboys brought him back.
“We were bad in the red zone last year,” Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones told Yahoo Sports. “We were not at the top of our game and Zeke’s got a nose for getting that ball in. [So] I still think Zeke’s gonna be wildly successful.”
Defining Elliott’s success will require factoring in his assists.
Elliott will still factor into run game — but that may not be his most valuable role
The Cowboys enter 2024 without a clear top running back for the first time in Prescott’s nine seasons.
Elliott served that role for six seasons, shared it with Pollard in a seventh and passed it to Pollard in the eighth.
The Tennessee Titans awarded Pollard with a three-year, $24 million deal this spring that was richer than the Cowboys were willing to pay. So Elliott will be among the Cowboys’ top two options with Rico Dowdle, who rushed for a career-high 361 yards and two touchdowns last season, catching 17 more passes for 144 yards and two scores.
Dowdle, an undrafted product out of South Carolina, didn’t start a game last season as he played just 22% of offensive snaps.
Dallas is banking on the Elliott-Dowdle combination to be sufficient.
“We’ll be a committee this year,” Schottenheimer said of the running backs. “I’m excited about that — I think that’s where the league is going anyway.”
Teams are trending away from star running backs because of the perceived devaluation of the position on second contracts and because of the advent of analytics screaming the efficiency of the passing game.
There, too, the Cowboys expect Elliott to help.
Don’t expect Elliott to appear too heavily in Prescott’s reads, with Lamb the Cowboys’ clear first option followed by tight end Jake Ferguson, Cooks and up-and-coming receiver Jalen Tolbert.
Instead think back to the double A-gap pressure that Prescott faced earlier in training camp. Elliott, he says, made that pass happen.
“As I talk about my experience making me better, his experience is making him better,” Prescott said. “Now, does he have the burst he once had, does he have the quickness he once had? Not necessarily. But do I believe that he’s better at riding the wave and pushing his gaps and then making his cut back setting guys up. I feel like he’s better, and when you’re able to do that, it’s all the same.
“So it evens it up.”