There isn't any doubt but what Zeke lacks the same level of "shake and bake" quickness that he had as a rookie. That isn't to say that the straight-ahead power isn't still there, though. The quickness and speed will deteriorate in time, while the power remains intact. That's Zeke in a nutshell, imho.
Any RB who has withstood the punishment that goes with the number of carries that Zeke has had will be prone to this gradual deterioration that I've just described. There's no doubt that the quality of run blocking isn't what it once was years back and that's a viable factor, also.
Zeke has never been a true shake and bake shifty, elusive back.
Besides the once high hurdle act - which he no longer seems to have the agility to do that - he's not/never been one for out-juking and making defenders miss in the open field.
He's not Barkley or McCaffrey. or Kamara in that area.
But he's gonna make that one cut in and out of a hole ,and then accelerate downhill.
Back in his 2016-17 days, he'd accelerate to the 2nd level. Nowadays there's no more than the 15 yard run at the least.
- I often compare ZKE's style of running to Adrian Peterson because both are one cut runners, that are not overly elusive but early in their prime both were instant breakaway runners
in-out of the hole, off tackle, up the middle.
Sure they'd give you the hard angry runs too, but they were the types that kept a defense on nervous eggshells on every given play because
they could break it big on any given play.
- Neither were not creative pass catchers either. You're not gonna win a lot of isolation
But give zeke a quick screen and you'd see him sprint up field for that once patented homerun catch and run TD. Send Zeke on a wheel route upfield or a misdirection flair-swing pass
and you could see a 20-30 yd splash catch.
As John Madden used to say- it's 2 things defenses absolutely fear.
1) Speed
2) A running QB