Cowboys still selling Elliott-Pollard tandem; is 2022 the year it finally happens?

Tony Pollard was always supposed to be a complement to Ezekiel Elliott, but the Cowboys have mostly shied away from using them together. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Cowboys fans are an extraordinarily patient bunch, even when there’s little legitimate reason to be.

How else to explain the indefatigable and perennial-as-clockwork hype for America’s Team when they haven’t sniffed so much as a conference title game appearance in a quarter of a century?

And so it is no surprise, then, that for the fourth year in a row, the Dallas faithful seem sure that this will finally be the year that the Cowboys realize they have a true two-headed monster in the backfield and actually deploy both halves in equal measure.

Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard have made up one of the most dynamic running back duos in the league since they’ve been together. Yet maddeningly, the Cowboys refuse to use them as a twin-terror attack.

But it’s a new season, so it’s time for the annual spin job about how this year will be the year.

“Tony’s a guy that we’re really excited about- finding different ways we can utilize him and use him in different roles- so it’s going to be fun,” said offensive coordinator Kellen Moore just this week.

“I think it’s great that this year we have opened up the offense and have more packages with me and Tony on the field. I think that will be good for us,” added Elliott a few days ago.

“Having both of us out there at the same time, having defenses confused about who they need to cover, who is the running back, who is out at receiver, that type of thing,” Pollard said in Oxnard, “I’m always ready.”

Except the Cowboys have been spouting some version of that same philosophy every year since the speedy and versatile Pollard was drafted out of Memphis in 2019. The team suspected they had lightning in a bottle that preseason, when Elliott was away in Cabo in a contract dispute and Pollard’s performance prompted owner Jerry Jones to joke “Zeke who?” in a postgame interview.

But as Pollard’s effectiveness has skyrocketed over time, his usage in the supposedly ultra-creative Cowboys offense has increased only incrementally. In his first year, he was on the field for 18% of the team’s offensive snaps. Last year, it only bumped up to 30%, despite a leaguewide belief that he’d be the starting back on more other teams than not.

Elliott is still the featured back in Dallas, though, despite dwindling stats over the past three seasons. Much of it comes down to Elliott’s contract. He has become the fancy gas-guzzling car that the Cowboys now know they overpaid for, so they decide to drive it until the wheels fall off, stubbornly trying to get their money’s worth out of it instead of taking the far more economical model that gets better fuel mileage that’s also sitting in the garage.

Using Pollard as a change-of-pace back is one thing. The Cowboys have adjusted the players’ rushes every year, but it’s been gradual. Elliott outcarried Pollard 301 attempts to 86 in 2019. In 2020, it was 244-101. Last season, 237-130.

But many observers have wondered why the team shies away from putting them on the field together to force defenses to make a choice. The Cowboys used 21 personnel (two running backs, 1 tight end) on just 2% of offensive snaps in 2021. And most of those came in Weeks 1-4, a period when both backs clearly benefited; Elliott had 342 yards to Pollard’s 250.

That short sample size of four games may come the closest to what everyone has imagined- and Cowboys coaches have promised- for a true Elliott-Pollard double-shot. Unfortunately, the experiment was cut short.

Elliott injured a PCL in that Week 4 game and- after a strong showing the week after- just wasn’t the same the rest of the season. While he topped 1,000 yards, he averaged just 4.2 yards per carry on the year and never saw his usage dip.

An obviously more-effective and healthier Pollard, meanwhile, was averaging 5.5 yards… and getting just 35% of the workload.

And yet, the Cowboys maintain that they have big plans for both players heading into a critical season for both of their careers.

Elliott and his weighty paycheck could well be on his way out of Dallas after the 2022 season. Pollard is entering the final year of his rookie deal. Both could find themselves wearing new colors next year.

“I look at both of those guys as No. 1 runners,” head coach Mike McCarthy said just this week. “I think they’re definitely a tandem, and it’s obviously a focal point for us.”

Except it hasn’t been for three years running. Not really.

But that doesn’t stop Cowboys Nation from believing that things might be different this time around.

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