Ezekiel Elliott
The defensing rushing champ won’t repeat in 2019 after a statistical dropoff. Of course, the case can be made that Prescott’s increased productivity through the air inevitably meant fewer yards for Elliott on the ground. But even in a (somewhat) down year, Elliott currently holds the No. 4 spot on the list of the league’s rushing leaders and was named to his third Pro Bowl.
Elliott’s 1,235 rushing yards going into the season finale will make it all but impossible to catch Cleveland’s Nick Chubb. Chubb leads the NFL with 1,453 with a Week 17 matchup against Cincinnati. Carolina’s Christian McCaffrey is next with 1,361. Tennessee’s Derrick Henry has 1,329. Again, it would seemingly take one of them sitting out the final game of the season and Elliot having a field day for him to leapfrog any one of those guys in the final rankings.
Seattle Chris Carson sits just five yards behind Elliot, but is done for the year with a hip injury. Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson is the league’s 6th-best rusher with just 29 fewer yards than Elliott, but will not play in the Ravens’ Week 17 game. Elliott could, however, still be caught from behind. Jacksonville’s Leonard Fournette and Oakland’s Josh Jacobs are within 100 yards of Elliott. So is Minnesota’s Dalvin Cook, but he may be held out with a nagging injury and the Vikings’ postseason berth already locked up.
A Top 5 finish in 2019 would be Elliott’s third in four seasons as a Cowboy. He won the rushing title in his rookie year of 2016 as well as last year. Even with the monumental asterisk of a six-game suspension, Elliott finished the 2017 season 10th in total rushing yards. Amazingly, he still ranked first in terms of average rushing yards per game that season, a full 10 yards per game better than the runner-up.
Many analysts argue the wisdom of paying running backs top dollar or forking out for anything past their rookie deal, but Elliott has been the best in the business at his position for two of his four seasons, Top 5 three out of four years, and has never finished outside the Top 10.
Continue…
[lawrence-newsletter]