The man at the top of the Cowboys organization claims there is a master plan regarding the team’s running backs in 2024. This, despite a committee approach that has yielded just 410 rushing yards through five games, a total that ranks them 31st out of the league’s 32 teams.
A Thursday post on X from longtime Cowboys beat writer Clarence Hill Jr. stated that two-time rushing champ Ezekiel Elliott “confirmed he has talked to the coaches about his role and remains dumbfounded by his lack of opportunities at least as red zone back.”
Owner Jerry Jones not only took issue with the notion that there is any misunderstanding inside The Star, he offered an explanation for Elliott’s reduced role that many found positively mystifying.
“That’s an exaggeration. ‘Dumbfounded’ is an exaggeration,” Jones told 105.3 The Fan on Friday. “It’s a bad description of how he feels about things. He’s very much aware of the part of the running game that he’s involved with. More importantly- and I can’t emphasize this enough- we’re saving him. And we should be.”
Elliott has logged just 30 carries this season but hasn’t had double-digit rushing attempts since his 10 in the season opener. He has totaled just 98 yards on the ground and one touchdown. He’s been on the field for just over 30% of the Cowboys’ offensive snaps in 2024, seeing as few as 10 snaps in the Week 4 win over the Giants.
But the idea that Elliott is causing friction inside the locker room or with coaches over his downgraded role is one that the three-time Pro Bowler is quick to shoot down himself.
“It is definitely a little different, but I mean just to keep my head down, continue to work. Hopefully my opportunity comes,” Elliott said, per the team website. “Just kind of letting it play itself out. Honestly, I’ve been focused on being a good teammate. I’ve been focusing on continuing to help lead this team. Not really so much making it about me, just making it about this football team, to win football games.”
The Cowboys are coming off their best team rushing performance in Week 5’s win over Pittsburgh, a game in which depth back Rico Dowdle enjoyed career highs in rushing attempts (20) and yards (87).
Dowdle has looked like the more explosive back for the Dallas offense, but Jones admitted that the club is leery of putting too many eggs into the basket of a fifth-year veteran who has appeared in 41 games total.
“Rico is an outstanding running back,” Jones explained. “He’s always had the challenge- mainly, I guess, because of his size in doing the blocking and protecting the quarterback. But his big problem has been what? He’s had troubles with injury over his career. And so it’d be madness to just rely on him for the duration of the season and into the playoffs.”
Of course, one can easily question the wisdom of making postseason personnel decisions a full three months ahead of time. At 3-2, the Cowboys have a long way to go, and their 3.5-yard-per-carry average will likely need to improve for them to even make the tournament.
And that is why so many are questioning the apparent workload split. Elliott is- if Jones is to be believed- being held in reserve despite being brought back to town to ostensibly be the bulldozing short-yardage specialist. And four-time Pro Bowler Dalvin Cook remains on the practice squad, still waiting to see the field in a Cowboys uniform. Yet it was Dowdle (with his 606 career rushing yards) who was given a critical goal-line carry at the end of Week 5’s game… and fumbled.
It’s not a knock on Dowdle, really, but it does pose the question: what, exactly, are the Cowboys “saving” anything or anyone for?
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“Ezekiel is there. He will be there because we want to protect him during this particular time as much as anything. And then, of course, you’ve got a player like Dalvin Cook out there in the wings that is going to be very material as we go forward,” Jones added.
“They’re there for everybody to see. It’s no secret, and we’re going to use them. I keep my fingers crossed every time I see Rico grab that ball. He’s a violent runner, he’s an outstanding runner, and we wouldn’t even be having a running back conversation if he’d been able to stay healthy the last two or three years.”
Jones maintains there is no timeline on Cook’s debut, nor is there a set snap count currently for Elliott. To hear him tell it, both players are basically insurance policies for Dowdle, though he promises both will be deployed at some point.
So for now, the Cowboys’ running back committee will apparently look to keep on keeping on.
“I think the biggest thing is we got the attempts [for the group],” said Elliott. “I think it is tough early in the game when you run the football, because the defenses, they’re not tired, They’re fresh and all geared up. But once you get that second half and you start getting those attempts, you start to see that D-line wear down. … I think the biggest thing is to continue to try to get those attempts.”
Whoever’s getting them.
It’s all part, supposedly, of a master plan.
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