Twitter: Next gen stats - Zeke was slower in 2017

[Super_Kazuya]

Zeke definitely wasn't quite as good in 2017 as he was in 2016...but it wasn't a very big difference at all. The bigger issue was the drop in the OL play....at LG and RT....one awful player and another out of position set the line back big time. Our OL allowed more penetration into the backfield this past year than I've saw the the two years prior combined.

It was a pretty big difference. The question is not “was Zeke that far off from his 2016 season” (he was), it was “was he that far off from having a good season” (he wasn’t). Comparing to 2016 is foolish because Zeke had an all-time great historical season that he almost certainly will not reach again. But I certainly saw no reason to think he isn’t an excellent back still. The screen pass in SF that someone posted earlier was magnificent.