Nice day overall for Pollard. But his average per carry of 5.75 is misleading. "Average" has different measures, statistically. The 5.75 is more precisely the "mean", there's also "median" and "mode". Of course the mean is used for comparison among running backs, over the course of even a Dorsett's career, let alone Emmitt's, trying to figure the median and mode would give way too many numbers.
Commonly even to get a "true" mean, you take all the raw numbers and remove the highest and the lowest, and then compute the mean. Pollard had 12 carries for 69 yards, removing the 40 yard high and his zero yard low (if I didn't miss one of his runs), you have 10 carries for 29 yards, or a 2.9 carry. That's not good.
Has Zeke had some of those games? Sure, every back has. And this is only one game as a starter for Pollard, that's obviously not enough data to make a valid judgement as to his ability. But the really hard core Zeke detractors will say Pollard is better than Zeke, should be the starter, etc. Since we have only this one game so far, what you have is insufficient information to determine that, but again taking this one game, Pollard hasn't shown that.
Next year, barring a lengthy injury or illness to Pollard, we should be able to make a better determination. And the contract doesn't enter into it, Zeke will get paid next year one way or the other, not talking about "worth" here, just the ability to help the Cowboys win SBs...
