It's truly stunning.
A year ago, people around here were disgusted about signing Darren McFadden. Too old, too injury-prone, too slow, no production, 4th string on the Raiders, just a guy to give Joseph Randle a break. Nothing but a flyer and damage control.
Dallas was being disloyal to the greatness of Demarco Murray, and stupid to let him get away to an arch rival for $8 million a year. Dallas should have given this 27-year-old running back what he had earned the prior year, even though he'd never really done anything like that before (and probably wouldn't again).
The angst was rightly palpable, especially after a draft that yielded no answers.
Fast forward a year...
Many of these same people now claim McFadden is all the Cowboys needed behind this offensive line. Suddenly, he's a spring chicken with 300 carries easy in his body, and he would have delivered this time in the clutch, not just in meaningless games and garbage time. Alfred Morris would have added to the greatness, despite the fact Washington said "no thanks" just like Oakland did to McFadden. Other teams trash is suddenly our stolen treasure.
Drafting a 20-year-old phenom likened to Ladanian Tomlinson was a wasted pick. That's the gobbledygook being slopped around local radio and these boards.
The amazingly ridiculous suggestion is that Elliott won't be measurably more successful behind this offensive line than the two journeymen cast-offs. Never mind that Elliott is much faster, more powerful, vastly laterally quicker, better built, a better blocker, and a significantly better receiver than both of both of the vets combined. All that with a new set of Michelins, and a lesser price tag than Murray.
With a healthy Romo, this will now be the best offense in football. But never mind that. Wasted pick.
The stat dorks will point to McFadden's meaningless yards. They'll ignore the situational aspects of what it means to defend plays against a superstar back versus a scrap-heap guy. They'll ignore Elliott's propensity to score touchdowns, which McFadden has seldom done. They'll ignore the great likelihood that McFadden would have gotten hurt again, for the umpteenth time, any day now.
Fans around the division wanted to throw bricks through their TVs. The whole league is shaking their heads in disgust about what Elliott adds to this offense. Cowboy haters are none to happy because it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to do the math.
Apparently, we're running low on rocket surgeons these days. I expect it from local media, who are clawing and scratching for relevance and audience these days. But from the common Cowboys fans, especially those who watched what Dorsett and Emmitt did here, it's befuddling to put it kindly.
Six months from now, you'll nary here a whisper about it again. Elliott will be the brightest rookie star, and nobody except Jacksonville fans will be uttering the name of Jalen Ramsey. The NFC East will see the Cowboys in first place, and be dreading the next many years of facing Elliott and this monster line.
In the meantime, I think I need to invest in ear muffs. (Cue the Old School memes.)
