Should Cowboys run Zeke like they did Murray in 2014?

[PA Cowboy Fan]

No. What did ruining Murray accomplish anyway? Nothing and we had to go out and draft another RB. It's time this team makes a run at a SB. It needs to be balanced.

 

[Number1]

"Should Cowboys run Zeke like they did Murray in 2014?"

no

 

[Bobhaze]

"Should Cowboys run Zeke like they did Murray in 2014?"

no

Why not?

 

[Diehardblues]

Should the Cowboys top brass consider running Zeke Elliott like they did DeMarco Murray in 2014- Murray’s last great year as a Cowboy?

Murray led the NFL in rushing in 2014 with a league leading 1,845 yards and had a whopping 449 total touches for the year, which also led the league. Murray had that great 2014 season at the age of 26...and he was never the same after it. 2014 was Murray’s “contract year”, and the Cowboys famously decided eventually that he would not be worth paying market value long term, so Murray left after 5 very productive seasons

The Cowboys have an interesting crossroads coming with Ezekiel Elliott after the 2020 season. Sign him to a bigger long term deal, franchise tag him (which didn’t work out well with Pitts when they tagged LeVeon Bell) or just let him walk to some other team.

I know many here will disagree with me but I’m in favor of the letting him walk option. And here are my reasons in no particular order of importance:

• His off field behavior placed this team’s ability to count on his services in jeopardy in 2017 and maybe again this coming season. That suspension in 2017 cost this team dearly. (The most important ability a player must have is availability to play) If Zeke doesn’t grow up and stop acting like a spoiled frat brat, he’s not worth making a centerpiece to your team.

• Although Zeke is very talented, a RBs talent fades faster than almost any other position player. Most really good RBs begin to show decline sometime after 5-8 seasons. It’s why most NFL teams don’t make the RB position worth a long term investment.

• If a RB has a season like DeMarco Murray, where they have over 400 touches in a season, a drop off in production usually happens the following season. The 400+ touch season is historically a killer for the long term effectiveness of NFL RBs.

• Remember Larry Johnson, Jamal Anderson, Terrell Davis, James Wilder, Eddie George? They all led the league in rushing with over 400 carries. And within a year or two fell off the performance cliff.

So let’s use Zeke over and over the next two years. Pile on the touches. Maximize his use. Ride him to a Super Bowl? Because at the end of his 5 years here, he may not be worth keeping around much longer anyway.

Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe he’s worth making a big cap commitment after 5 seasons. Maybe Zeke is an outlier. If he’s used like we did DeMarco Murray, NFL history says otherwise. (Is Todd Gurley going to be another example of the need to not make a big RB commitment?)

I respect dissenting opinions. Should we keep Zeke long term? Or should we let these next 2 years be his swan song?

Agreed. Ride our big horse into the ground.

 

[percyhoward]

The last two seasons, Zeke has averaged 26.8 and 25.4 touches per game in the regular season. Even if he misses some time this year, he should still be up over 25 touches per game for the 3rd year in a row. If so, he 'd be only the third player ever to do that while playing at least 10 games per season. Dickerson did this in his 4th-6th seasons (1986-88), and Tomlinson did it from 2002-04 (also his 2nd-4th years in the league, same as it would be for Zeke).

What's even more interesting is that LT was only two touches away from doing this his rookie season as well, and he only missed one game in his first four years. No back in league history was worked harder than LT in his first four seasons, and yet his best years were actually 2006 and 2007, his 6th and 7th seasons.

Tomlinson (1,654) and Dickerson (1,583) are the only guys with over 1,500 touches in their first four years. And both of them won rushing titles in their 6th season. So you never know.

 

[LittleD]

"Should Cowboys run Zeke like they did Murray in 2014?"

no

Yes...every Sunday and twice on Monday or Thursday. Use him until you use him up. RB's are dime a dozen players these days. We got two this year and can get two next year if we need.

 

[Doomsday101]

Not being sarcastic, I agree his first suspension was unfair but he hasn’t shown the discipline yet to alleviate any worries that he can stop being an idiot. He’s probably in NY right now. His behavior since the suspension is a legitimate concern for missing more games.

I know Jerry thrives on coddling players with behavioral issues but if they by some miraculous chance let him walk they would hardly be the first team to do that with one of their best players, happens every year and teams move on.

I don't know the full story and while I do think he must use better judgement especially in public settings I'm not giving up on him. I don't think he is bad guy hell bad guys do pay to have someone else child to be buried. I can't control how others feel all I can give his my views.

 

[Doomsday101]

Yes...every Sunday and twice on Monday or Thursday. Use him until you use him up. RB's are dime a dozen players these days. We got two this year and can get two next year if we need.

all avg players are a dime a dozen, not all great players are a dime a dozen. Hell I can find a lot of QB's to throw in there does not mean they can do the job. That saying
a position player is a dime a dozen is BS

 

[aria]

I don't know the full story and while I do think he must use better judgement especially in public settings I'm not giving up on him. I don't think he is bad guy hell bad guys do pay to have someone else child to be buried. I can't control how others feel all I can give his my views.

Very nice response. I’ve always been vocal about him because it’s so frustrating to watch him potentially derail his career and the team in the process. Obviously he’s been great for us on the field but off the field is another issue and I’m not one that subscribes to “Zeke is a victim”. While I think he was screwed initially, he’s done too much since then for me to have any faith that he’ll straighten out.

After every time he does something stupid, I think to myself “ok, surely this is the wake up call and he’ll get his act together” then he goes and does something else. He didn’t let me down this summer, it’s wearing thin.

I appreciate your cordial and positive response, unfortunately it’s hard for me to be too positive about him off the field until I don’t hear or see his name in the news for the wrong reasons for a couple of years which has yet to happen.

 

[Doomsday101]

Very nice response. I’ve always been vocal about him because it’s so frustrating to watch him potentially derail his career and the team in the process. Obviously he’s been great for us on the field but off the field is another issue and I’m not one that subscribes to “Zeke is a victim”. While I think he was screwed initially, he’s done too much since then for me to have any faith that he’ll straighten out.

After every time he does something stupid, I think to myself “ok, surely this is the wake up call and he’ll get his act together” then he goes and does something else. He didn’t let me down this summer, it’s wearing thin.

I appreciate your cordial and positive response, unfortunately it’s hard for me to be too positive about him off the field until I don’t hear or see his name in the news for the wrong reasons for a couple of years which has yet to happen.

Not out to change peoples view only can express my own. I honestly do not know what happened at the event he was at. While I have given up on guys like Gregory I have yet to throw in the towel on Zeke. What I do know is he was suspended for 6 games when even the lead investigator on his case felt he should not have been suspended and now a situation where I don't know what took place and based on that I should give up on him? What else has he done? 1 situation where a girl lied and asked friends to lie and now a situation where the facts are unclear?

 

[Flamma]

Run him for all he's worth, whatever it takes to win. I wouldn't go out of my way to over run him, but I wouldn't purposely protect him either. No need to coddle these players.

 

[Doomsday101]

Run him for all he's worth, whatever it takes to win. I wouldn't go out of my way to over run him, but I wouldn't purposely protect him either. No need to coddle these players.

I don't expect Dallas to coddle anyone. I expect to see Zeke getting an avg of 21 carries a game touches in the passing game as well. I expect him to be used as part of the offensive game plan just as they have.

 

[Hardline]

They've been running Zeke like Murray since his rookie year.

 

[CouchCoach]

How are they gonna run a back into the ground that taps out when he needs a break? He can and will control the top end on his touches and you get a tired back you get turnovers.

Do we think the agents don't coach these RB's, that have the shortest life spans, that are feature backs? It's all about that 2nd contract.

 

[uvaballa]

Run him into the ground and then go young. He takes and dishes a lot of punishment because he’s not very elusive.

 

[OmerV]

Right now Zeke is only touching the ball about 3 times a game less than Murray did in 2014, but it's hard to know how much that matters. It really comes down to how much the Cowboys think those extra touches affect the offense. Accordingly, the pertinent questions seem to be as follows:

1. Do the Cowboys think those fewer touches hurt the team by not having Zeke in on 3 or so additional plays a game?
2. Do they think if Zeke had more touches it might affect how fresh he is in the 4th quarter and toward the end of the season?

 

[LACowboysFan1]

Problem is you don't know what an extensive amount of carries will do to Zeke.

Emmitt ran the ball an average of 348 times his second through sixth years, in 1995 had had 418 touches, yet the next year he had 374. Over 300 carries twice after that.

And Zeke is similar to Emmitt, in that he's a compact running back, he can take the pounding better than a scat back, or a taller, more lanky back.

So you might be able to run him a lot for several more years, if the team can get to where they play with leads, he can sit out some.

Or he might fall off like the other backs mentioned by someone here.

As far as "there's lots of good running backs coming out every year in the draft", that's true, but not every back is an Emmitt or a Zeke, with the fine line in the NFL between the championship teams and the mediocre teams, if you have an exceptional back, you should try and keep him...

 

[aria]

Not out to change peoples view only can express my own. I honestly do not know what happened at the event he was at. While I have given up on guys like Gregory I have yet to throw in the towel on Zeke. What I do know is he was suspended for 6 games when even the lead investigator on his case felt he should not have been suspended and now a situation where I don't know what took place and based on that I should give up on him? What else has he done? 1 situation where a girl lied and asked friends to lie and now a situation where the facts are unclear?

The fact that while he was being investigated for DV against a woman (right or wrong) and knows he’s being watched he goes out and pulls up a girls top in public. I don’t care if she was ok with it, I don’t even care if she told him to do it...it was stupid as hell for him to do under the circumstances.

Then there’s the nightclub incident in Dallas. No, there wasn’t any proof that he knocked out the DJ but it doesn’t take a genius to put the pieces together to figure out he did it. On a side note, myself and a couple others here know people who were at the club, work at the club or work closely with the club and know for a fact he did it. This was AFTER he was suspended for DV. Again, dumb decision and he’s lucky the NFL didn’t do their own investigation.

Then there was the very minor incident at the Las Vegas club where he was with Dak and some of the O linemen. He allegedly tried to start a fight with another DJ (apparently he likes clubs but not DJ’s) and they had to hold him back. Again, no evidence other than the DJ calling him out as a punk on twitter but apparently it was enough for him to be permanently banned from the club which says a lot. Another dumb decision involving potential violence. Not a big deal but there’s obviously a pattern.

Now we have this incident in Vegas. What we do know is he was blocking his girlfriend from leaving, not a huge deal but not a good look. Then, after pacing around, we see him walking away from a security guard, then turn around, start walking back to him and says “what did you say”? He then proceeds to make physical contact with the security guard knocking him over. He was then cuffed by police and released without arrest. I don’t care if the guard flopped or not, he initiated physical contact which isn’t a good look for someone who has been accused of domestic violence rightfully or wrongfully. That also could easily be defined as intimidation which is specifically written as a breech of the players code of conduct.

It’s not like any of these isolated incidents are a big deal and normally they wouldn’t be. It’s not because he’s a Cowboy, the league has already ignored the other incidents I mentioned, it’s because he was warned to not have any adverse incidents with police and not to be in any more trouble.

Although I think he got screwed with his suspension, that doesn’t change the fact that he hasn’t acted accordingly since. Hell, he couldn’t keep himself out of trouble while he was being investigated. As I’ve said in another thread, I’ve been arrested a few times. One of them was for “public misconduct” aka fighting. It was complete BS and I was innocent but just because I was wrongfully charged didn’t give me a free pass to continue to put myself in bad situations or in any type of situation that could be perceived as bad if I didn’t want that little Class C to turn into something more the next time I screwed up or was arrested.

Just like in real life or with most jobs, you can break the small rules but if it keeps happening, the hammer is going to come down whether that means jail time instead of deferred adjudication or getting fired instead of a written reprimand.

I agree that the league has been inconsistent and Zeke’s suspension was bogus based on the findings or lack thereof but that doesn’t change the fact that Zeke knew he was on a short leash and continued to put HIMSELF in bad situations which is why I have zero sympathy for him. People can make all the excuses they want for him and even call him a “victim” after his first suspension but he knew the scrutiny he was under and chose not to make the right choices. It was easy, stay out of trouble.

I also don’t like the “poor me” excuses. I don’t care what happens to other teams, I care what happens to ours. It’s not that hard to party responsibly, I know from experience. All of these people trying to minimize and make excuses for him clearly have the same mindset as Zeke which isn’t a good thing. It’s time he puts on his big boy pants if has any, maybe he can borrow Jaylon’s or LVE’s.

TLDR

 

[Johnny23]

The fact that while he was being investigated for DV against a woman (right or wrong) and knows he’s being watched he goes out and pulls up a girls top in public. I don’t care if she was ok with it, I don’t even care if she told him to do it...it was stupid as hell for him to do under the circumstances.

Then there’s the nightclub incident in Dallas. No, there wasn’t any proof that he knocked out the DJ but it doesn’t take a genius to put the pieces together to figure out he did it. On a side note, myself and a couple others here know people who were at the club, work at the club or work closely with the club and know for a fact he did it. This was AFTER he was suspended for DV. Again, dumb decision and he’s lucky the NFL didn’t do their own investigation.

Then there was the very minor incident at the Las Vegas club where he was with Dak and some of the O linemen. He allegedly tried to start a fight with another DJ (apparently he likes clubs but not DJ’s) and they had to hold him back. Again, no evidence other than the DJ calling him out as a punk on twitter but apparently it was enough for him to be permanently banned from the club which says a lot. Another dumb decision involving potential violence. Not a big deal but there’s obviously a pattern.

Now we have this incident in Vegas. What we do know is he was blocking his girlfriend from leaving, not a huge deal but not a good look. Then, after pacing around, we see him walking away from a security guard, then turn around, start walking back to him and says “what did you say”? He then proceeds to make physical contact with the security guard knocking him over. He was then cuffed by police and released without arrest. I don’t care if the guard flopped or not, he initiated physical contact which isn’t a good look for someone who has been accused of domestic violence rightfully or wrongfully. That also could easily be defined as intimidation which is specifically written as a breech of the players code of conduct.

It’s not like any of these isolated incidents are a big deal and normally they wouldn’t be. It’s not because he’s a Cowboy, the league has already ignored the other incidents I mentioned, it’s because he was warned to not have any adverse incidents with police and not to be in any more trouble.

Although I think he got screwed with his suspension, that doesn’t change the fact that he hasn’t acted accordingly since. Hell, he couldn’t keep himself out of trouble while he was being investigated. As I’ve said in another thread, I’ve been arrested a few times. One of them was for “public misconduct” aka fighting. It was complete BS and I was innocent but just because I was wrongfully charged didn’t give me a free pass to continue to put myself in bad situations or in any type of situation that could be perceived as bad if I didn’t want that little Class C to turn into something more the next time I screwed up or was arrested.

Just like in real life or with most jobs, you can break the small rules but if it keeps happening, the hammer is going to come down whether that means jail time instead of deferred adjudication or getting fired instead of a written reprimand.

I agree that the league has been inconsistent and Zeke’s suspension was bogus based on the findings or lack thereof but that doesn’t change the fact that Zeke knew he was on a short leash and continued to put HIMSELF in bad situations which is why I have zero sympathy for him. People can make all the excuses they want for him and even call him a “victim” after his first suspension but he knew the scrutiny he was under and chose not to make the right choices. It was easy, stay out of trouble.

I also don’t like the “poor me” excuses. I don’t care what happens to other teams, I care what happens to ours. It’s not that hard to party responsibly, I know from experience. All of these people trying to minimize and make excuses for him clearly have the same mindset as Zeke which isn’t a good thing. It’s time he puts on his big boy pants if has any, maybe he can borrow Jaylon’s or LVE’s.

TLDR

I have always thought that Zeke's going to be our LT as in Lawrence Taylor not Ladanian. I think he's going to continually test the franchises loyalty to the bitter end of his time here. I agree he is an idiot and talented... That's currency that gets you second chances look at Chandler Jones in Arizona. We all know how the Jones boys get down. So we'll see and I completely understand your stance but big picture I think we're going to go down in a blaze of glory or disasterous sinkin ship with Zeke long term.

 

[aria]

I have always thought that Zeke's going to be our LT as in Lawrence Taylor not Ladanian. I think he's going to continually test the franchises loyalty to the bitter end of his time here. I agree he is an idiot and talented... That's currency that gets you second chances look at Chandler Jones in Arizona. We all know how the Jones boys get down. So we'll see and I completely understand your stance but big picture I think we're going to go down in a blaze of glory or disasterous sinkin ship with Zeke long term.

For sure, that’s Jerry’s MO. If these same things happened to Zeke on another team and they let him walk, Jerrah would be the first to swoop in and get him. I don’t think there’s a snowballs chance in hell they let him go.

IMOF, I think they will give him a huge contract unless he gets suspended or hurt and somehow one of our rookies has success (a la Dak vs Romo, no one saw that coming). Of course the replacement won’t be as good as Zeke but maybe serviceable enough to win games without the contract and headache.