No. 4: Ezekiel Elliott, Dak Prescott and… Who Else?
OK, so the 2017 versions of Jason Witten and Dez Bryant may not have been the bona fide playmakers they once were not too many seasons ago. And the Cowboys offense could have suffered as a result.
Now, however, the Cowboys are hoping to replicate that kind of production from wide receivers Terrance Williams, Allen Hurns and the rookie, Michael Gallup. Williams, who has seen his production drop off since a promising 840-yard campaign in 2015, is going to be asked to shoulder much of Dallas’ receiving game this season.
And Hurns, who spent the last four years with the Jacksonville Jaguars, hasn’t looked anything like the 1,000-plus yard receiver he was back in 2015. If anything, his sub-500 yard receiving efforts in 2016 and 2017 (yes, quarterback Blake Bortles was under center) might be more of an indication the kind of role he’ll hold in Dallas this year.
Gallup is intriguing, just as he was at Colorado State. Keep an eye on him, as he’s been getting first-team reps as of late.
Still, there’s not the kind of star power one would bank on taking away touches from Elliott. As a result, he’s going to shoulder a lot of the load in 2018 both on the ground and through the air.
There’s evidence to support this too. Last season, when the Cowboys were facing the fact they’d likely be without Witten and Bryant soon, Elliott’s average amount of touches per game last year actually increased from his already high 2016 workload — an average of 26.8 touches per game in 2017, compared to 23.6 his rookie season. And he had nearly three more rushing attempts per game last season too. So if you account for him averaging 4.1 yards per carry in 2017, those three more per-game reps would have stacked up to just over 12-plus yards, additionally, per contest.
Drawn out over a full 16-game season, that’s nearly 200 yards. So if Elliott winds up getting just shy of 30 touches on the ground or in the air, you’d likely be looking at MVP-type numbers when Week 17 wraps up.
Next Page: No. 3
