Dallas Cowboys: Final 53-man roster prediction for 2021
By Randy Gurzi
Dallas Cowboys Running Backs (3)
Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollard, Nick Ralston
The Dallas Cowboys have done this before and they could very well do it again in 2021 — keeping only two halfbacks and one fullback.
Dallas has a lot of faith in Ezekiel Elliott (probably too much) and they will continue to overwork him. While that hurts his overall effectiveness, they stay blissfully unphased by this and keep running him into the ground. And he keeps showing up.
He did miss his first-ever game due to injury in 2020, but he has been able to play through quite a bit which is why they could believe Tony Pollard backing him up is all they need.
Of course, it would be nice to see them figure out how to get Pollard on the field more as well since he remains under-utilized. That’s due in large part to their over-reliance on Zeke, but we have seen that won’t change.
Their third back is Nick Ralston, the only fullback on the roster. He makes the team since they will want to carry a fullback but the undrafted kid who spent time at ASU and Louisiana could be called upon to carry the ball in an emergency.
Dallas will have other options as well should an injury happen during the week since they could likely keep both JaQuan Hardy and Brenden Knox on the practice squad but after Rico Dowdle was hurt, there wasn’t anyone who absolutely had to be on the 53-man roster at halfback.