1. Tony Pollard needs more touches
When looking at the overall numbers for Tony Pollard doing his rookie season, it seems like he got plenty of opportunities to make an impact. The fourth-round pick out of Memphis had 86 rushes for 455 yards with two touchdowns. He had another 15 receptions for 170 yards and another score.
However, when you look deeper, he did the majority of his damage in garbage time. In a 31-6 win over Miami in Week 3, Pollard had 103 yards and a touchdown. He had 131 yards in a Week 13 beatdown of the Los Angeles Rams — when they had a 44-21 victory. That means he had 244 yards of his 455 in just two blowout games.
Sure, the team has Ezekiel Elliott as their primary running back but only using a dynamic playmaker like Tony Pollard in meaningless minutes is absolutely inexcusable. Hopefully going forward that’s not gonna be the case. And if it’s up to Pollard, it won’t be.
Pollard stood out in their last practice of camp, as David Hellman of DallasCowboys.com said that he had three touchdowns — one of which came on a nice pass and the other two were apparently on runs where he got past the defense untouched.
all due credit to @megmurrrray, because I need y’all to understand that TP is on a roll. like Cottonelle.
— David Helman (@davidhelman_) August 31, 2020
I charted Tony Pollard with 3 TDs today. one was a really nice pass out of the flat. one was a 3-4 yard dive up the guy. the last one came from 20-25 yards out, untouched
The ability Pollard possesses as a receiver makes him a threat to score from anywhere but he’s also able to run between the tackles and pick up big yards.
Elliott will continue to be the No. 1 guy but there’s no reason not to preserve his legs and get Pollard double-digit touches in every single contest, even if the Cowboys aren’t out in front comfortably.