Pollard quickness

Aviano90 said:
No excuse this year for Zeke not to break multiple 40+ yard runs. He is said the be in the best shape of his life, Dak is in the best shape of his life, we have a receiving corps that may be the best in the league and the offensive line is healthy.
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What’s funny is a lot of people recognized he was too heavy and lost speed but the deniers claimed he wasn’t.
 
Aviano90 said:
I have given him his fair shot. I have even stated earlier in the offseason that I don’t know why people are complaining about him getting in shape. It’s like he did what we wanted him to do and people still aren’t happy because the cones can’t tackle or something.

He also appears to be working on avoiding contact instead of constantly initiating contact.

He appears to be addressing concerns that I had about him.
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I talked about this at length last season. More importantly he talked about it at length. Zeke stated on multiple occasions that he sought out contact early in games to set the tone on a defense. His strategy was to pound on the defense so that over the course of the game they would wear down and he could break big runs later. We know that early in his career he did NOT run that way so that new strategy was either something he was told to employ or he just came up with it on his own. Either way, since Kellen Moore became the play caller, he has not been getting enough carries for it to work. He has dropped from 22 carries per game his first three seasons to 17 carries under Moore. Typically those carries 20-25 is when the defense has had enough and the dam finally breaks. Then there is the whole playing from behind thing. That has also contributed to his diminished carries.

Finally there is Pollard himself. The front office invest 90 million in Zeke and know that if they hand him the ball 25 times a game they won't get their money's worth because he will be out gas and out of the league in 3 years. So they brought in Pollard. Ironically it's now Pollard who gets those late game carries against the worn down defenses which is why he sometimes makes those late game big plays that Zeke used to get. So the Cowboys are saving Zeke from wear and tear while capitalizing on Pollard's quickness late in games. It's a working formula but now people are mad at Zeke about it. Which they should not be. It's part of the overall strategy which the Cowboys believe is best for the TEAM. For this reason I don't care if Zeke ever has another 40 yard run. He's doing what the team needs him to do. Now will I be up off the couch screaming if he does break off a few long ones this year? Of course I will.. but since I understand what they are asking of him, I'm not going to trip if he doesn't. As long as he churns out those 4, 5, 6 yard runs that keep the chains moving and always gets positive yards no matter how many guys miss blocks in front of him he will he doing his job. I know it's not sexy, but that's what the change of pace back is for. Tony Pollard should help extend Zeke's career. Fans will clamor for him to be the starter annually and maybe they WILL make him the starter one day.. but for the foreseeable future.. that aint hapnin. So folks need to quit complaining and enjoy them both for what they do.
 
erod said:
I actually prefer Pollard over Zeke except when it's third and short.

He has a gear Zeke doesn't, and he's much quicker.

However, I don't know if he could take the beating of being a lead back.
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Exactly.
Zeke has the sheer power and lower body strength that can still drive forward even upon contact from a tackler, at the top of his game
when he's at the goal line, few one on one tacklers are going to stop him upon contact once he gains momentum.
Opposing defenders have testified that having to keep tackling wears them down.

- Elliott also is a better blitz blocker than Pollard, and though some fans overlooked that because he doesn't have the ball,
that element is utterly huge for the QB and team momentum.

-We haven't seen Pollard enough yet as a full time starter (only one) that he can maintain burden load and endurance throughout an entire game
But in spots and certain periods, Pollard is gonna show some surprising lower body tackle breaking ability though it's not on the level of Elliott.
He's instinctive, can run inside between the tackles and out on the edges, and i think if developed right, could be one of the top, more dangerous nickel RBs in the NFL.

- Pollard has definite breakopen ability whether as a runner and receiver, and add that to his renewed confidence, ball handling as a kick returner, which
i believe he'll likely be the most dangerous KR in the entire NFL this year,imo.
 
jazzcat22 said:
With a make shift 3rd and 4th string OL last year, and same for the QB's. And the defense keying on Zeke and the run game. As they had nothing in the passing game to really defend. He wasn't as bad as many want to think.
Not even Emmitt or any other great RB would have had 1,000 yards.
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Sorry,but emmitt, Payton guys like that definitely still would have got 1000...look at emmitts last year here,and look at that line...it was crap...the biggest reason why emmitts would still get his 1000 is because he never tapped out .. Zeke does it every other drive..also,look at emmitts qb that year... awesome.
 
quickccc said:
Exactly.
Zeke has the sheer power and lower body strength that can still drive forward even upon contact from a tackler, at the top of his game
when he's at the goal line, few one on one tacklers are going to stop him upon contact once he gains momentum.
Opposing defenders have testified that having to keep tackling wears them down.

- Elliott also is a better blitz blocker than Pollard, and though some fans overlooked that because he doesn't have the ball,
that element is utterly huge for the QB and team momentum.

-We haven't seen Pollard enough yet as a full time starter (only one) that he can maintain burden load and endurance throughout an entire game
But in spots and certain periods, Pollard is gonna show some surprising lower body tackle breaking ability though it's not on the level of Elliott.
He's instinctive, can run inside between the tackles and out on the edges, and i think if developed right, could be one of the top, more dangerous nickel RBs in the NFL.

- Pollard has definite breakopen ability whether as a runner and receiver, and add that to his renewed confidence, ball handling as a kick returner, which
i believe he'll likely be the most dangerous KR in the entire NFL this year,imo.
Click to expand...


Pollard is good at everything. He’s not a liability at anything.

His elusiveness, vision, and acceleration are elite.

He’s a big play waiting to happen.




Tony Pollard and Noah Brown could start for a lot of teams in this league. The rest of the backups are just backups. Those 2 should be NFL starters.


I think Elliot is a top 5 back but for the money and him showing decline as a big play guy I don’t think he’s worth it anymore.

We’ve probably seen the best of Zeke.

It’s a big play league and we don’t need a 14 mill a year back incapable of breaking games open and hitting homeruns.

Small ball has gotten us nowhere. We need a 2016 Zeke Elliot. That guy could house it from anywhere on the field.
 
CATCH17 said:
Pollard is good at everything. He’s not a liability at anything.

His elusiveness, vision, and acceleration are elite.

He’s a big play waiting to happen.




Tony Pollard and Noah Brown could start for a lot of teams in this league. The rest of the backups are just backups. Those 2 should be NFL starters.


I think Elliot is a top 5 back but for the money and him showing decline as a big play guy I don’t think he’s worth it anymore.

We’ve probably seen the best of Zeke.

It’s a big play league and we don’t need a 14 mill a year back incapable of breaking games open and hitting homeruns.

Small ball has gotten us nowhere. We need a 2016 Zeke Elliot. That guy could house it from anywhere on the field.
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We've seen a decline in Zeke's athleticism for sure, and now he's getting dinged more often.

This season will tell because he's got his weight down. He saw Pollard out-quicking him significantly, and it looks like he decided to do something about it.

If it doesn't look better than last year, this could be it for him in Dallas.
 
Hopefully Elliott received a vaccine for that fumble bug.
 
Aviano90 said:
The dude is good. He’s needs more snaps and hopefully it helps Zeke remain fresher.
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Would like to see him in the slot sometimes... I bet that would open up some more run options, and when it was a pass, and he got it... could probably move the chains good in the open field.
Like they did with Dunbar in 2014. Except I think he would be a heck of an upgrade over Dunbar in those situations.
 
quickccc said:
Exactly.
Zeke has the sheer power and lower body strength that can still drive forward even upon contact from a tackler, at the top of his game
when he's at the goal line, few one on one tacklers are going to stop him upon contact once he gains momentum.
Opposing defenders have testified that having to keep tackling wears them down.

- Elliott also is a better blitz blocker than Pollard, and though some fans overlooked that because he doesn't have the ball,
that element is utterly huge for the QB and team momentum.

-We haven't seen Pollard enough yet as a full time starter (only one) that he can maintain burden load and endurance throughout an entire game
But in spots and certain periods, Pollard is gonna show some surprising lower body tackle breaking ability though it's not on the level of Elliott.
He's instinctive, can run inside between the tackles and out on the edges, and i think if developed right, could be one of the top, more dangerous nickel RBs in the NFL.

- Pollard has definite breakopen ability whether as a runner and receiver, and add that to his renewed confidence, ball handling as a kick returner, which
i believe he'll likely be the most dangerous KR in the entire NFL this year,imo.
Click to expand...


Current thoughts?

Eye test alone today it’s not even close.
 
blueblood70 said:
don't care

zekes twice as good as pollard its fact no matter how hard you try to deny it and use last years stasts..

pollard is not a CM and or Kamara type, even though you are trying to hard to use that as an argument, new age my arse..hes backup a very good sub for every down nfl back..but keep trying 99% of the population of fans know zeke is better in every way other then this alleged burst and speed i didn't see for the first 4 plays that went for under 3 yards wi8th the starting OL..opp he hit 13 yarder and upped the average but long term this is pollard and like ronnie states clearly Pollards average suffers the more he carries and nearly always below zeke with 1/3 the carries/...

if TP was destined for greatness he would have 6YPC with his sub 100 carries and force the FO and coaches to play him more. Its not that way..

im bored of you and this, wipe your arse with TP , its all you got is tp..
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Still think this?
 
RonnieT24 said:
Zeke has been ranked between 5th and 10th by pretty much every fantasy site around the country.
CBS Sports has him 4th - https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/rankings/standard/RB/
Sporting News has him 7th - https://www.sportingnews.com/us/fantasy/list/2021-fantasy-rb-rankings/1vks1dc7axm121ev4yof58ury4/8
Pro Football Network has him 5th - https://www.profootballnetwork.com/fantasy-football-rb-rankings-2021-pw2/
Yahoo Sports has him 3rd.. - https://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy-fo...-town-is-it-d-andre-swift-time-175423077.html
Fantasy Pros.com has him 5th - https://www.fantasypros.com/nfl/rankings/rb-cheatsheets.php

Apparently it's not just Cowboys fans who think he "passed the eye test."

Gibson did appear in the top 10 on one list I found.. and he was #10.. He didn't make the top 10 on any of the others. Go figure. So if he's "viewed as a top 10 back around the league.." it's not showing up in fantasy rankings. Now I get that fantasy isn't the end all and be all.. But people are putting money on it.. and seems like considerably more people are putting money on Zeke having a great year than Gibson. PFF ranks him 15th.. 3 spots behind Zeke at 12.. Now think about that.. Zeke is coming off his worse season ever and is still ranked ahead of Gibson. Time will tell if Gibson outplays Zeke going forward.... but if everybody stays healthy I fully expect Zeke to dust him.
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What’s the current Pollard vibe today?
 
erod said:
I actually prefer Pollard over Zeke except when it's third and short.

He has a gear Zeke doesn't, and he's much quicker.

However, I don't know if he could take the beating of being a lead back.
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Seems like that is what has happened to Zeke besides all the off the field shenanigans.
 
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