Is Ezekiel Elliott at the Wall?

The Dallas Cowboys kept Ezekiel Elliott in bubble wrap this summer.

For good reason.

With their 2023 starter Tony Pollard departing for the Tennessee Titans in free agency in the offseason, taking his team-leading 1,002 rushing yards and six touchdowns with him, the Cowboys were left perilously thin at running back. That’s why they re-signed Elliott after cutting him a year earlier and now penciling him in at the top of their 2024 depth chart.

The Cowboys need whatever is left in the legs of Elliott. And they weren’t going to waste any of that in August.

But what is left in his legs?

There’s a reason running backs have been devalued across the league and why teams are reluctant to reward them with second contracts. Of late, the game has sprinted into the arms of the forward pass. Running backs have assumed secondary roles in offenses. Running backs also tend to burn out quickly in the NFL. They hit the proverbial wall.

The “wall” for running backs in the 1960s, 1970s and even into the 1980s was 28 years of age. They were the workhorses on offenses and teams rode them into the ground. But as offseason programs, intensified training and the increased emphasis on the pass came into play in the 1990s, the wall was pushed back to 29 years of age. Anything you can get from a running back after that age is a welcome and surprising bonus.

There are exceptions, of course. Essentially, the Hall of Fame-quality runners. John Riggins and John Henry Johnson managed 1,000-yard rushing seasons at the age of 35. Franco Harris and Adrian Peterson rushed for their final 1,000-yard seasons at 33 and Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton gained their final 1,000s at 32. Tony Dorsett and Curtis Martin posted their final 1,000s at 31 and Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas did it a final time at 30.

Hall of Famers Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson, Eric Dickerson, Jim Taylor, LaDainian Tomlinson, Edgerrin James, Floyd Little and Jerome Bettis all rushed for 1,000 yards at the age of 29 – and never again. The same thing with past rushing champions Jamal Lewis and LeSean McCoy – 29 and never again.

Hall of Famers Earl Campbell and Marshall Faulk rushed for 1,000 yards at the age of 28, as did past NFL rushing champions George Rogers, Shaun Alexander, Chris Johnson and DeMarco Murray. None ever hit 1,000 yards again. The same with Marshawn Lynch – 28 and never again.

Hall of Famer Larry Csonka rushed for 1,000 yards at the age of 27 – but never again. Otis Armstrong was a past NFL rushing champion who rushed for 1,000 yards at the age of 26 – but never again. Larry Brown was an NFL MVP and past rushing champion. He rushed for 1,000 yards at the age of 25 – and never again.

Like Armstrong, Elliott rushed for 1,000 yards at the age of 26, the fourth 1,000-yard season of his six-year career. But he was a high-mileage power back in the mold of a Csonka, Rogers, Campbell and Bettis. Derrick Henry led the NFL with 280 carries last season. Elliott led the NFL with 342 carries in his rookie season and also had seasons of 304 and 301 carries.

That translates into lots of hits, lots of tackles and diminishing tread on one’s tires.

Elliott rushed for 876 yards with a career-low 3.8-yard average in 2022 as a 27-year-old and became a salary-cap casualty of the Cowboys at the end of the season. He signed with the Patriots in 2023 but his productivity continued to shrink – 642 yards with a 3.5-yard average.

Now Elliott is back with the Cowboys, looking to resurrect both his career and the Dallas rushing offense. He won two NFL rushing titles with his 1,631 yards in 2016 and 1,434 in 2018 when the Cowboys fielded one of the most potent ground games in all of football. But individually, Elliott finished 37^th in the league in rushing last season. Collectively, even with a 1,000-yard rusher, the Cowboys finished only 14^th in the league in rushing.

The Cowboys did not give Elliott the football in the three-game pre-season. They didn’t even send him onto the field for those games. Whatever Elliott has left in his legs, coach Mike McCarthy was saving it for September – and hopefully October, November and December as well. But history is not on the side of either Elliott or the Cowboys.