Ezekiel Elliott is Washed Up

[DaBoys]

Last night, Zeke had 13 carries for 27 yards. That’s 2.1 YPC. Compare that to Tony Pollard who had 15 carries for 77 yards and 5.1 per tote. 
 

Over his last 5 games he has averaged 3.6, 3.4, 1.9, 1.2, and 2.1 yards per carry. That’s 72 carries for 187 yards and 2.59 YPC in 5 games. 
 

I don’t want to hear about “dirty yards,” “Work horse this wear defenses down that.” Or anything about coaching. The fact of the matter is Zeke looks slow, unathletic, and easy to take down. The offense is better with Pollard in the game, and any play designed for Zeke is just about guaranteed to be less than 3 yards. 
 

He had a lot of carries in college and in his first 4 years of the NFL. I believe he is done. Washed up. Kaput. It’s over. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised at all if he retires at the end of the year. 

Edited January 18 by DaBoys

[Nextyearfordaboyz]

Just now, DaBoys said:

Last night, Zeke had 13 carries for 27 yards. That’s 2.1 YPC. Compare that to Tony Pollard who had 15 carries for 77 yards and 5.1 per tote. 

Over is last 5 games he has averaged 3.6, 3.4, 1.9, 1.2, and 2.1 yards per carry. That’s 72 carries for 187 yards and 2.59 YPC in 5 games. 

I don’t want to hear about “dirty yards,” “Work horse this wear defenses down that.” Or anything about coaching. The fact of the matter is Zeke looks slow, unathletic, and easy to take down. The offense is better with Pollard in the game, and any play designed for Zeke is just about guaranteed to be less than 3 yards. 

He had a lot of carries in college and in his first 4 years of the NFL. I believe he is done. Washed up. Kaput. It’s over. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised at all if he retires at the end of the year. 

Yeah, I agree with pretty much all you are saying, with the caveat that we are in a weird spot with that contract albatross where is would likely be a lot cheaper in the short term to keep him on a pay cut than to cut him.

Given that, it might make sense to keep him as a backup/mentor/short yardage guy. But I certainly agree the his time as a real offensive contributor has come to an end.

[HDsportsfan]

At this point I'd be happy if we just didn't give so many 1st down runs to nowhere.

[WizardHawk]

Agreed on all counts. He’s pretty close to a wasted roster spot at this point. I’m confident Malik can produce on par and likely better. Will be interesting to see what Dallas does. He’s getting a pay cut at the minimum. 

[The_Slamman]

I completely agree about zeke… he’s got June 1 cut written all over him.  This is a decent draft for RBs.  Outside of goal line and pass protection, he’s a liability.

[NoFlyZone]

Maybe. It’s also hard to judge when the line is honestly not blocking well at all right now and he has 2 guys on him at the LOS. He maybe can’t create like he used to.. kind of needs some lanes to run through instead of just being the bulldozer asked to plow through defenders for 2-3 yards.

The coaching staff isn’t totally moronic. They wouldn’t be feeding him carries if they think he’s a liability. Think they have the ability to look at the stat sheet and also attach film/ context to it. 

Edited January 18 by NoFlyZone

[D82]

His leadership role is valuable, but it’s time to move on. He isn't worth what he brings to the table and that whole situation should be a big alert to the front office not to pay big money to a RB. 

[textaz03]

We got options with him. Out right cut him, per Spotrac, Zeke has a CAP hit of 16.7 mil for 2023. If he is cut out right before start of the league year, his CAP hit is 11.8 mil in dead money and savings of 4.8 mil. But this ultimately gets him off the books for 2024 when CeeDee and Diggs are due contracts. 

If he is a post June 1st cut, his CAP hits are 5.8 mil this year and year 2024. Savings of 10.9 mil this year. 

Zeke is very cuttable this offseason.  

[5x10]

He’s an expensive 1-2 yard back

[plan9misfit]

This is why you don’t pay big money for RBs.

[atran35]

CUT or paycut. No way he getting paid.

[plan9misfit]

On 1/19/2023 at 3:12 PM, atran35 said:

CUT or paycut. No way he getting paid.

Pay cut still means negative or 1 yard running plays. A lower salary won’t change subpar production. I think we should move on.

[matt79511]

As @Nextyearfordaboyz brought up, we can only save $4.9M by straight releasing Zeke, compared to upwards of $9M through a paycut down to the vet minimum (assuming he’s willing to sign for that). A post-June 1 cut is more palatable but they would going to have to make other plans to make room for free agents since that doesn’t go into effect immediately.

I do think there was a point this season at which he was more effective than his stats would suggest, but clearly he can’t make it a full season anymore while still being effective. It would be nice if we could just sign him for December/January next year a la Hilton but that’s probably unrealistic. Ergo I lean towards moving on, though tentatively I expect him back on a revised deal.

[plan9misfit]

1 hour ago, matt79511 said:

As @Nextyearfordaboyz brought up, we can only save $4.9M by straight releasing Zeke, compared to upwards of $9M through a paycut down to the vet minimum (assuming he’s willing to sign for that). A post-June 1 cut is more palatable but they would going to have to make other plans to make room for free agents since that doesn’t go into effect immediately.

I do think there was a point this season at which he was more effective than his stats would suggest, but clearly he can’t make it a full season anymore while still being effective. It would be nice if we could just sign him for December/January next year a la Hilton but that’s probably unrealistic. Ergo I lean towards moving on, though tentatively I expect him back on a revised deal.

And at some point, this organization needs to cut the umbilical cord and understand that the owners’ expectation is that Zeke gets the ball regardless of his contract, which negatively impacts the team. Move on. Seriously, I don’t care what his salary is, 2.1 ypc is not good enough.

Edited Sunday at 02:38 AM by plan9misfit

[DaBoys]

13 minutes ago, plan9misfit said:

And at some point, this organization needs to cut the umbilical cord and understand that the owners’ expectation is that Zeke gets the ball regardless of his contract, which negatively impacts the team. Move on.

Agreed. He shouldn’t be getting these 13-17 carry games anymore. You have to think they are doing it so they don’t look ridiculous having that contract on the bench.  As well as all those 1 yard TDs they gave him. Numerous times Pollard would break a 10-15 yard run down to the 1 and get benched for Zeke to punch it in.