Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott has 30 carries so far this season and his usage became a topic of conversation this week.
Elliott said that he has spoken to the Cowboys about how little he has been used through the first five weeks of the season and was described as being “dumbfounded” by the team’s plan for him. On Friday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was asked about Elliott’s feelings and took issue with that characterization while saying that the team is taking a long view with the veteran back.
“That’s an exaggeration,” Jones said. “Dumbfounded is an exaggeration, a mischaracterization. It’s a bad description of how he feels about things. He’s very much aware of the part of the running game that he’s involved with. More importantly — and I can’t emphasize this enough — we’re saving him and we should be. . . . Zeke is there, he will be there, because we want to protect him during this particular time.”
Jones noted that Elliott has dealt with injuries over the course of his career and that history is something a team should keep in mind when choosing how to deploy a player. That said, there’s no guarantee that there are going to be meaningful games late in the season if the Cowboys don’t take care of business now so it would make sense to get more of Elliott if the team thinks he can help them win games.
