Bob Sturm Stats: Zeke vs. Pollard on First Down

[ArtClink]

Bob Sturm, who writes for the Athletic and is an on-air personality for Dallas radio The Ticket posted this stat comparison Zeke vs. Pollard, KC game to present all on first down:.

The results are not surprising to me. Pollard's yards per rush are 5.38 vs Zeke's 2.69 among other stats.

Jerry needs to let big Mac play Pollard a lot more than Zeke. This gives us the best chance to win in the playoffs.

 

[Sydla]

Combo of Elliott being banged up, Elliott already in decline as a player, his lack of explosiveness and really his limitations as an in between the tackle runner at this point........... multiple times in recent games, you can just see DEs crashing down because there is little threat of Elliott going outside. Dallas doesn't even try to run him on sweeps and tosses like they used to.

Also with Pollard in the game, teams likely see him more as a pass threat so they can't just focus on the run.

At this point, it's pretty clear what a mistake it was to resign Elliott and frankly, his ineffectiveness is an issue over the last half of the season that has hurt the O.

 

[John813]

Wow, -13.96 EPA for Elliott. That's impressive.

I can hear Randle from prison saying that's theres meat left on that bone.

 

[CATCH17]

This season is bigger than their investment in Zeke.

They have to play Pollard.

Playing Zeke is the type of thing that is wrong with this team.

 

[Hawkeye19]

We need to move on from Zeke as soon as we have a feasible escape hatch in his contract. Extend Pollard. Draft a RB in the first 4 rounds and use that cap space to address some other needs.

 

[Sydla]

We need to move on from Zeke as soon as we have a feasible escape hatch in his contract. Extend Pollard. Draft a RB in the first 4 rounds and use that cap space to address some other needs.

After the 2022 if you want cap savings. You can cut him this offseason and designate him a June 1 cut, which is a net zero cap savings.

I suspect they will look to after 2022 to cut him. Try to salvage him for one more year. Jerry is often slow to admit his mistakes.

My fear is they do something stupid and restructure his contract again, further kicking cap hits into future years.

 

[CATCH17]

After the 2022 if you want cap savings. You can cut him this offseason and designate him a June 1 cut, which is a net zero cap savings.

I suspect they will look to after 2022 to cut him. Try to salvage him for one more year. Jerry is often slow to admit his mistakes.

My fear is they do something stupid and restructure his contract again, further kicking cap hits into future years.

I think a healthy in shape Zeke is still a quality player so they should just get 1 more year out of him and then move on.

They have to reduce his role though and they need to do it right now with him hobbled.

 

[Ranched]

The results are not surprising to me. Pollard's yards per rush are 5.38 vs Zeke's 2.69 among other stats.

Jerry needs to let big Mac Kellen Moore play Pollard a lot more than Zeke. This gives us the best chance to win in the playoffs.

FIFY

 

[morasp]

Pretty small sample size for Pollard. In addition, Zeke has been injured but is getting better, is a better pass protector, and a better receiver. I watched one play where Dak got flushed from the pocket and Pollard just turned around and stood there. Pollard got hurt with only a slight increase in his touches, I'm not sure what would happen if he was the feature back. Troy Hambrick was supposed to be better than Emmitt because he would come in for a few plays and get more yards but when he became the starter it didn't work out that way.

 

[Aven8]

After the 2022 if you want cap savings. You can cut him this offseason and designate him a June 1 cut, which is a net zero cap savings.

I suspect they will look to after 2022 to cut him. Try to salvage him for one more year. Jerry is often slow to admit his mistakes.

My fear is they do something stupid and restructure his contract again, further kicking cap hits into future years.

Philly admits a lot of mistakes too and they get rewarded for them. We sit on them until everyone knows they can’t play anymore

 

[khiladi]

It’s a comparison of 26 to 45 rushes.

They should actually pull in the stats to see how many of the rushers were against stacked boxes, just to see if the defenses were playing run or not.

 

[Sydla]

Philly admits a lot of mistakes too and they get rewarded for them. We sit on them until everyone knows they can’t play anymore

Well trading a QB likely has value. In a league where most teams don't value RBs, trying to trade Elliott is comical.

 

[Aven8]

Well trading a QB likely has value. In a league where most teams don't value RBs, trying to trade Elliott is comical.

I was speaking in general. Jaylon, Zeke….

 

[Sydla]

It’s a comparison of 26 to 45 rushes.

They should actually pull in the stats to see how many of the rushers were against stacked boxes, just to see if the defenses were playing run or not.

Here's the thing. When Elliott is in the game, defenses likely will tend to load up. One, Elliott is a between the tackle runner at this point. Two, he's not a big pass threat at this point. When Pollard is in the game, teams are more aware of the outside runs, screens, etc.

The issue facing the Cowboys right now is Elliott just isn't all that effective right now and Pollard isn't an every down type TB.

 

[Sydla]

I was speaking in general. Jaylon, Zeke….

But again, positions/contracts are different. QB is such a valued position that teams will be willing to take on a big contract and guy like Wentz. RBs are devalued in this league so it's nearly impossible to trade a guy like Elliott. Gurley had to be cut after the Rams tried to trade him.

And Philly isn't all bubble gum and roses here. They had a couple of bad contracts such as Alshon Jeffrey, that they tried to move on from via trade and just couldn't.

 

[lukin2006]

This should be Elliot’s last year in Dallas…

 

[Ken]

Bob Sturm, who writes for the Athletic and is an on-air personality for Dallas radio The Ticket posted this stat comparison Zeke vs. Pollard, KC game to present all on first down:.

The results are not surprising to me. Pollard's yards per rush are 5.38 vs Zeke's 2.69 among other stats.

Jerry needs to let big Mac play Pollard a lot more than Zeke. This gives us the best chance to win in the playoffs.

Last 7 games:

Zeke: 3.2 ypc
TP: 5.4

Zeke is killing us.

 

[ArtClink]

This season is bigger than their investment in Zeke.

They have to play Pollard.

Playing Zeke is the type of thing that is wrong with this team.

Well said. You are so right, that this one of the symptoms on what's wrong with our franchise's foundation.

Pollard passes the eye test much better than Zeke and it gets old watching Zeke rarely breaking a tackle and Pollard sitting on the sidelines.

 

[MountaineerCowboy]

This season is bigger than their investment in Zeke.

They have to play Pollard.

Playing Zeke is the type of thing that is wrong with this team.

You say that, but Zeke is a star on this team, and Jerry cares a lot about things like that.

I don't care how much he says "He'd do anything to win". He's lying.

 

[ArtClink]

It’s a comparison of 26 to 45 rushes.

They should actually pull in the stats to see how many of the rushers were against stacked boxes, just to see if the defenses were playing run or not.

Doesn't Pollard just look like a better back, a more explosive back, and based on his long kickoff returns and his longer runs, the better back? I call this the eye test and Zeke finishes 2nd. Stats also back up Pollard being the more effective back.

Let's switch their roles and use a rested Zeke more and let Pollard take the most touches and see what happens. Zeke can still be effective but we have to play to his strengths. Using a rested Zeke in 4th quarter is the best of both worlds IMO.