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These 3 superstar NFL running backs lost their value in 2022

By Brendan Semon

Fantasy Football waiver wire: Saquon Barkley injury. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Fantasy Football waiver wire: Saquon Barkley injury. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports /
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2022 NFL season
2022 NFL season; Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott (21) signals a first down in the first quarter against the Arizona Cardinals at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports /

No. 2 – Ezekiel Elliott (Dallas Cowboys)

Ranking in at number two is Ezekiel Elliott, which comes as little surprise to anyone who has watched him play the previous few seasons on the Dallas Cowboys.

In his rookie year, Elliott set the bar insurmountably high when he totaled 1,631 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground off of 322 attempts to average an astounding 5.1 yards per carry.

Since then, his yards per game have continued to digress as the average becomes smaller and smaller with each passing year. In the 2020 NFL season, Zeke had a career-low performance finishing the campaign with 244 rush attempts for 979 yards (4.0 YPC) and six touchdowns on the ground.

Throughout the season he averaged just 65.3 yards per game, a significant fall from the career-low he posted the year prior with 84.8 YPG.

This brings us to the horrid season Ezekiel Elliott put together last season in 2021, as his yards per game decreased even more so to just 58.9.

Yes, Zeke reached the 1,000 rushing yards mark during the season (1,002), but that was due to the increased length of the schedule from 16 regular season NFL games to 17.

Additionally, easily the biggest facet of Elliott’s game is his ability to pick up yards after contact as well as being able to break tackles with freakish athleticism and size at 6’0″ – 230 pounds.

However, his number of broken tackles has also fallen substantially, as from 2019-2021 he’s registered 24, 15, and 9 broken tackles in the respective seasons.

With all of this being said, there are two reasons why Ezekiel Elliott has lost his role in the Dallas Cowboys.

The first is the emergence of Tony Pollard who shared the workload with him last season, racking up 719 rushing yards off of a mere 130 attempts (5.5 YPC).

The second reason, and most important one of all, is that Elliott is signed to a 6-year $90 million contract. When you compare the stats to the money, he simply isn’t worth such a lucrative deal.

Based on last season alone, Tony Pollard is the no-brainer solution at RB1 for the Dallas Cowboys.

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