Is anybody else getting just a little bit nervous about Ezekiel Elliott? Seemingly a great talent, and he’s running behind what’s supposed to be the league’s best offensive line. But Elliott was oddly ineffective in his first game.
Elliott scored on an 8-yard run, and he also had a nice enough 8-yard run on his previous carry. But his other 18 carries went for only 35 yards.
They’ve also got Alfred Morris, and every time they put Morris in the game, things seemed to happen. Morris carried 7 times for 35 yards.
What’s going on here?
I re-watched all of those carries last night. It didn’t seem like Elliott was getting much room. He got hit in the backfield a lot. Maybe the Giants (who have a good defense) were simply amped up and keying on him. But with Dallas having that offensive line, it seems like Elliott should be popping off big gainers anyway.
Morris seemed to have a little more room when he was in there. Definitely on a couple of his 10-13 yard runs, there were holes there. Why it played out that way, I have no idea. Morris was hit in the backfield on one carry (a third-and-one, I think) that was very similar to a lot of Elliott’s.
Too early to panic, I think. I saw Elliott carry 8 times for 48 yards in a preseason game against Seattle’s first-team defense, so I know he can do it.
But of the 12 other running backs selected with top-10 picks in this century, only five went for over 1,000 rushing yards in their first year. Five didn’t even lead their own team in rushing.
| RUNNING BACKS SELECTED IN THE TOP 10 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Att | Yards | Avg | TD |
| 2000 | Jamal Lewis, Balt. | 309 | 1,364 | 4.4 | 6 |
| 2000 | • Thomas Jones, Ariz. | 112 | 373 | 3.3 | 2 |
| 2001 | LaDainian Tomlinson, S.D. | 339 | 1,236 | 3.6 | 10 |
| 2005 | Cadillac Williams, T.B. | 290 | 1,178 | 4.1 | 6 |
| 2005 | Ronnie Brown, Mia. | 207 | 907 | 4.4 | 5 |
| 2005 | • Cedric Benson, Chi. | 67 | 272 | 4.1 | 0 |
| 2006 | • Reggie Bush, N.O. | 155 | 565 | 3.6 | 9 |
| 2007 | Adrian Peterson, Minn. | 238 | 1,341 | 5.6 | 13 |
| 2008 | • Darren McFadden, Oak. | 113 | 499 | 4.4 | 4 |
| 2010 | • C.J. Spiller, Buff. | 74 | 283 | 3.8 | 1 |
| 2012 | Trent Richardson, Clev. | 267 | 950 | 3.6 | 12 |
| 2015 | Todd Gurley, St.L. | 229 | 1,106 | 4.8 | 10 |
—Ian Allan