Cowboys want Ezekiel Elliott involved but fresh, too

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The Cowboys want Ezekiel Elliott to get the football. They also don’t want to wear down their star running back.

It’s a fine line.

“I think it’s a situation where we understand what Zeke is to our football team, to our organization, to our success,” Cowboys running backs coach Gary Brown said. “I think it’s important for us as an organization to maximize his ability to go out and help us win championships, and the way we do that is to take a little bit off of him. You know, 300 carries last season. It must be over 1,000 touches so far. So we’ve got to make sure we take care of that guy.”

Elliott led the league with 304 carries and 381 touches last season, getting a career-high 77 receptions. His backups last season combined for only 50 rushes and nine receptions.

Elliott has 1,003 touches in his three seasons.

The only season he didn’t lead the league in rushing attempts was 2017 when he served a six-game suspension.

Cowboys coach Jason Garrett took issue with the word “limit” when asked about the team’s plans for the running back this season.

“Zeke’s a great football player and one of the things we love about Zeke is that he wants opportunities,” Garrett said. “He loves carrying the ball. Last year I think he caught 77 passes for us. His ability to do so many different things puts a lot of pressure on the defense. But we believe very strongly in attacking different ways and trying to get different guys on each play in a position where they can threaten the defense, and we like to in a lot of ways get other people involved at the running back position. Make no mistake about it, Zeke Elliott’s going to be a huge part of what we do. But if we can take a few snaps off of him here and there, and be able to put a running back in who we trust to do some of the things that he’s done for us, we certainly want to embrace that opportunity. But he’ll certainly be the featured guy in our offense like he has been. He’s a great player.”

Elliott’s primary backup last season, Rod Smith, signed with the Giants. The Cowboys used a fourth-round pick on Memphis running back Tony Pollard, who they are excited about using in a variety of ways, and a seventh-round choice on Ohio State running back Mike Weber, who hurt his knee in Saturday morning’s practice.

Brown said the Cowboys have a plan “for what we want to do.”

Elliott, 23, has two rushing titles in three seasons. But with the Cowboys seeking to extend Elliott’s contract, they want to make sure he stays healthy for several years to come.

Elliott, despite his “feed me” gesture after big runs, is good with that, Brown said.

“Zeke wants to win championships,” Brown said. “I think he understands where he sits in the hierarchy of the running back room. He understands what he has to do and what he means to us. At the same time, he understands that he wants to be able to be fresh in January, February, Super Bowl, December. He wants to be fresh then. That’s important to him.”