For those that don't have ESPN+ and can't see more of the details on their coach/GM/player rankings of running backs, there were 6 RBs picked #1 overall. Derrick Henry had the most and highest votes so he was picked #1 overall. And Zeke was in the "Honorable Mention" category which means he received some Top 10 votes, but not enough to break the Top 10.
A big comment by the voters was that he lost his breakaway speed. For those of us watching the games, this has been apparent. Some blame the blocking.
But here are the longest runs in NFL year-by-year for every season they played for the 6 RBs picked as #1
Derrick Henry 22, 75, 99, 74, 94, 76 (Wow! Talk about dominance his entire career thus far)
Jonathan Taylor 62, 83
Nick Chubb 92, 88, 59, 70
Dalvin Cook 33, 70, 75, 70, 66
Alvin Kamara 74, 49, 40, 49, 30 (Ok, starting to get back to regular human here)
Joe Mixon 25, 51, 41, 34, 32
Zeke?
60, 30, 41, 33, 31, 47
Pollard?
44, 42, 58
Maybe Zeke never was that guy with breakaway speed? His rookie year was the best offensive line he'll ever play with, and he managed a 60 yard but it went back to earth pretty fast.
How about yards/attempt? Pretty similar line. Zeke compares with the guys ranked after the top 4, but still loses out to Pollard.
Derrick Henry 4.5, 4.2, 4.9, 5.1, 5.4, 4.3
Jonathan Taylor 5.0, 5.5
Nick Chubb 5.2, 5.0, 5.6, 5.5
Dalvin Cook 4.8, 4.6, 4.5, 5.0, 4.7
Alvin Kamara 6.1, 4.6, 4.7, 5.0, 3.7
Joe Mixon 3.5, 4.9, 4.1, 3.6, 4.1
Zeke?
5.1, 4.1, 4.7, 4.5, 4.0, 4.2
Pollard
5.3, 4.3, 5.5
So the number missing here is attempts. Can Pollard put up those numbers full-time? Doubtful. Zeke has been the workhorse of our team every year, while can't say the same about everyone on that top 1 list. Some of those guys did not average 300 attempts/year like Zeke, or couldn't play 16 games through everything. You also don't hear it on blocking and Zeke always has his boy Dak's back. This is why you hear it from guys like Aikman - love his heart, love his will -- Zeke will play through anything and is a workhorse, but unfortunately, you don't win points for that, and why we should at least try to give Pollard a shot to have more carries vs Zeke. You also don't win points for playing hurt. It does help you though win the total rushing yards title in a season.
But I guess I'm trying to say, not everything is black & white. Is Zeke that same superstar in his earliest years? No. Especially with him not able to consistently be the workhorse. But he's still one of the better RBs in the league all things considered. The things that get Zeke is he's being paid more than anyone on that list. That I can't argue with, nor can I argue with the fact that none of those guys didn't cost as high a draft pick. None of those #1 votes above was drafted in the first round!
I tried looking around for guys that came out of nowhere after 6 seasons and started leading the league again in stats. Even Emmitt after 6 years never put in one of those stat heavy years again, but he did maintain consistency and was that freak iron horse we all love. Bettis rebounded after 3 years. Even John Riggins in his rebirth with the Skins still put up numbers similar to Zeke's current numbers. Adrian Peterson had a great year at age 30 after all those injuries. But it is tough to find RBs that came back after six seasons.
So yes, probably Zeke's last year unless he takes a sizeable pay cut to stay in Dallas. And yes, we'll find someone who can still put up numbers if we draft right. Appreciate all Zeke did, and I hope he proves everyone wrong, because he is one of my favorite players because of all the intangibles I mentioned - plays hurt, blocks, team player - but won't be surprised to see him in another uniform next year if he doesn't have a miraculous comeback this year which looks unlikely.
