Dallas Cowboys: Ezekiel Elliott wants to be like Marshall Faulk
By Randy Gurzi
Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott sets some lofty goals as he wants to be like Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk, but is that attainable?
After a great rookie season, Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott isn’t satisfied. He lead the league in rushing with 1,631 yards despite being a healthy scratch in Week 17 as the coaches decided to rest him in preparation of their playoff appearances. What he didn’t do though was participate in the passing game as much as he would have liked.
This surely wasn’t due to ability as Zeke was a productive receiver out of the backfield in the NCAA for the Ohio State Buckeyes. His skill as a receiver, and blocker, helped his stock as he was a three-down back from his first snap in the league.
For some reason though, Dallas didn’t use him as such all the time. He often would be sent to the bench for the shifty Lance Dunbar. The diminutive running back was never as good at the job as Elliott appeared to be, but the coaches for some reason kept shaking things up in passing situations.
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With Dunbar now in Los Angeles, Elliott hopes to be on the field even more. Not only that, but he would also like to be seen as the same caliber player as Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk — who he says he’s modeled his game after, according to him on The Doomsday Podcast (per Charean Williams on Pro Football Talk.
"“One of the guys I looked up to growing up playing football was Marshall Faulk. You hear stories about him about how he was kind of like a second quarterback back there with Kurt Warner. So this offseason, I’ve just been focusing on kind of learning the offense outside of roles. I’m just kind of being able to be back there and be helpful to Dak [Prescott] and just kind of … learning what everyone else is doing and how I fit into my job."
With 32 receptions for 363 yards and one touchdown, Elliott was good as a rookie — but not great. Faulk had over 500 yards as a rookie and by the prime of his career he was putting up numbers similar to a receiver, including a 1999 season where he had over 1,300 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving.
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The Cowboys would surely love to see such production out of Elliott, and he also has the skill set to improve as a receiver. As for being the next Faulk, those are some loft goals as he was a once in a generation talent.