Video: AM: What Happened To Ezekiel Elliott? (Reaction Breakdown)

TwoDeep3 said:

What Happened To Ezekiel Elliott? (Reaction Breakdown)

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He got paid!

TwoDeep3 said:

What Happened To Ezekiel Elliott? (Reaction Breakdown)

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He has regressed. Plain and simple.

TwoDeep3 said:

I think the point is when you base Elliott on his salary, and then blame him for not getting long runs, this clearly shows he is still working hard, but there are extenuating circumstances.

Which actually validates my opinion that this is about money that doesn't belong to the complainer, because we live in a time when all people want to do is beetch.

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No way you can't see he has lost speed, it's so clear. They screwed up paying him, but paying Jaylon is a much bigger mistake

CBZ reaction when one player makes 1 good play: pay da man!!!!!!!!!!!

standards have dropped.

Aging RB. Out of shape. Little training camp for 2 years. Bad scheme. Overrated OL. Bad character.

It will get worse.

What I noticed is there are more defenders on these plays that failed in 2019 than blockers. Its easy to see there are free defenders but where are they coming from? What we are seeing is defensive scheme, especially from the Vikings, designed to disguise the defensive focus on the run. I looked at the Vikings game replays multiple times and what they were doing was putting one extra guy in the box on every play. If the Cowboys had a TE on the line to give them 6 blockers the Vikings put a 7th guy in the box. Often they would bring a safety up after the snap. Having said that, there is no doubt that Tyron Smith and Travis Frederick are not as good as they were in 2016. Connor Williams is not as good as Ron Leary was and, frankly, La'El Collins is not as good run blocking as Doug Free was. And as the guy in the video says, even Zack Martin is not what he was in 2016. Not many people are going to argue otherwise after watching the video breakdowns. The question is why? Is it Columbo? is it injuries? None of these guys are old so I am inclined to believe that its more about injuries and scheme than anything else. I would also argue that our receivers were better blockers in 2016 than they are today.

But none of this means Zeke is not slower than he was in 2016. Notice those runs to the outside in 2016. Zeke would break those all the time. Now, the defense beats him to the outside. He gets caught by the pursuit. He is not outrunning LBs when in 2016 he could outrun safeties. Zeke is slower getting to the holes. He is not beating the pursuit to the gaps and he is not hitting the gaps with enough speed to get past defenders before they close the hole. He is still a good RB, but not what he was in 2016.

This is one reason why I think Jerry needs to fire Garrett and bring in a new coaching staff to fully evaluate every player on the team to assess what they really are objectively.

Garrett has never had a feel for the running game. Below him you have an OC and
OL coach with a whole three years of experience. The whole coaching staff is a clown show of inexperienced guys given positions because Jerry likes them and Stephen likes them because they are cheap hires.

It's clear that the offensive line is not nearly as proficient at moving guys off the ball in the run game. The line is pretty beat up in terms of injury, and they are gutting it out.

That being said, Elliott has gotten physically thicker, and is not as fluid as he was when he entered the league. His initial quickness also isn't what it was. He's still a very good back, but he hasn't shown the overall explosiveness in his play since 2017. He's a grinder now.

The Cowboys have to pray that his physical style doesn't lead to injury over the next four seasons, as that's the effective length of his contract extension.

TwoDeep3 said:

There is still plenty of cap space. That has long been established.

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what's plenty + 90 million? we could afford it, and it was still a bad move. It doesn't make Zeke a worse player to not live up to it, it just brings the spotlight (which he earned) directly on to his enormous dome

daboyzruleperiod said:

He got paid!

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That seems to be the common denominator.

TwoDeep3 said:

What Happened To Ezekiel Elliott? (Reaction Breakdown)

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Ive been saying this all yr. The defense is not attacking its LBers but rather letting them locate the ball and flowing to ther ball. The blocking scheme has killed him. But ignorant trolls who dont even bother watching just come in here and say hes washed up.

buybuydandavis said:

Someone else posted this recently.

The oline blocking worse is not mutually exclusive of Zeke losing a step.

Further, the argument that "Zeke used to not be touched for 40 yards, and now he's not" is *not* really an endorsement of Zeke as *still* a great back, but a better argument that he *never was* one, and only looked great in 2016 because the oline opened massive holes that most any decent back could break for big yardage.

The oline used to run block better.

Zeke used to have more burst and speed. You see it in the runs of 2016. You see it in Zeke beating the defense to the edge in 2016. How many times has Zeke beat a defense to the edge this year? I recall Zeke declining to even try to take the edge on multiple occasions this year.

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I see it more as other teams deciding to load up on Zeke and stop him at all cost and force others to take up the slack.

Part of that requires the OC to adjust the offense too.

Moore is not creative. He stays predictable and plays it like Linehan.

That is just stale.

So change the HC but also the OC and his assistant. They together are not winning.

He fails to mention we don't run those run plays anymore..we don't pull that much maybe 2-3 times a game and we don't mix in a power man on man scheme like that. We do some crazy reach zone blocking,,Lael is trying to cut block the nose tackle on an inside zone run left....it's nuts. There's no lanes..Columbo and K Moore have done a horrible job with this run game and Garrett is to blame for letting it happen

Noclaf said:

No way you can't see he has lost speed, it's so clear. They screwed up paying him, but paying Jaylon is a much bigger mistake

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I think the jaylon deal is going to be the new Crawford deal.

the video while is telling the truth the Oline has regressed I still don't think that confirms Jerry did the right thing.plug in any RB or even pollard for that matter its the same thing. Good to great numbers in 2016 and as the line regressed so does the RB. zeke is a quality RB top 3 in the league but steady winning organizations don't over pay at the position of RB.

Zeke is overpaid not washed up but in a few years he will be if the line dont get back to 2016 form

Dude needs to be in on 22 plays a game minimum!

Redball Express said:

I see it more as other teams deciding to load up on Zeke and stop him at all cost and force others to take up the slack.

Part of that requires the OC to adjust the offense too.

Moore is not creative. He stays predictable and plays it like Linehan.

That is just stale.

So change the HC but also the OC and his assistant. They together are not winning.

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Loading up on Zeke now doesn't explain the oline not looking as good this year. Teams loaded up on Zeke in 2016 too. Especially with Dak as a rookie QB, they were much more willing to let Dak beat them.

But the oline can't beat that stacked box like they did in 2016. That was probably the last time they all were healthy too. I don't think the oline has "lost a step". They just aren't healthy. And Leary at LG was just *better* in the run game in 2016 than Williams or XSF this year.

But the thing is, Moore *did* adjust the offense in the first 3 games. 70% pass on first down. Which we stopped in game 4 against the Saints, running Zeke into the dline on first down on *at least* the first 5 first downs.

What it looked like to me was that Moore was doing his thing in the first three games, and then he and/or Garrett puckered up and went conservative against NO. Maybe not conservative as much as wanting to "establish our identity" as a running team with Zeke as the "stick that stirs the drink".

Playmaker3128 said:

zeke a durability needs to be taken into consideration and celebrated. He may not be elite in terms of speed but he does everything well.

the guy is on pace for 1400 yards... 13 touchdowns and 52 or so catches in a “down year” and that’s in a year for some reason when we’ve gone away from him in some close games.


People point to these other flashy big play rbs? But how many of those guys have either been one hit wonders or unable to stay healthy?

People don’t realize zeke is on pace to be a hall of gamer.

No maybe not worth the contract. But I’ll take the consistency and durability over a lot of other players. Zeke is fine and the least of our worries

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ive been saying this all year and tired of defending Zeke as the trolls wont s t f up.. hes not changed whats being called and what in front of him changed and hes still managed to get near 6YPC in the first halves of the last 3 losses and they stop giving him the ball in the 2nd half, the GB game same thing... hes had plenty of great momeets this year but the losses and his contract have made him a target 2019 scapegoat..

to me Zekes still zeke

Kellen moore and jon kitna happened.

They dont know how to call a game with the roster they have and are hell bent on showing everyone dak can throw the ball and be an elite passer at the expense of the team.

buybuydandavis said:

Someone else posted this recently.

The oline blocking worse is not mutually exclusive of Zeke losing a step.

Further, the argument that "Zeke used to not be touched for 40 yards, and now he's not" is *not* really an endorsement of Zeke as *still* a great back, but a better argument that he *never was* one, and only looked great in 2016 because the oline opened massive holes that most any decent back could break for big yardage.

The oline used to run block better.

Zeke used to have more burst and speed. You see it in the runs of 2016. You see it in Zeke beating the defense to the edge in 2016. How many times has Zeke beat a defense to the edge this year? I recall Zeke declining to even try to take the edge on multiple occasions this year.

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It is rare for Zeke to have a chance to get to the edge when defenders are two yards in the backfield every play. No RB is going to do well under these circumstances.