Todd Archer, ESPN Workforce Editor
FRISCO, Texas — It’s the center of the overall padded coaching camp observe in Oxnard, California, and the Dallas Cowboys are going through fourth-and-1.
Ezekiel Elliott has been the principle working again choice in that status since 2016, however the Cowboys excused their 1/3 all-time rusher in March and he just lately signed with the New England Patriots.
Within the date, a stadium may well be stuffed with 80,000 enthusiasts, and they all would know Elliott was once getting the ball. Extra steadily than now not, he would prevail.
In this era, Tony Pollard is coated as much as Dak Prescott’s proper. Later the quarterback tucks the ball into Pollard’s palms, the working again is going proper and sticks his underpinning within the farmland to select up the primary indisposed.
There aren’t any enthusiasts within the makeshift stands at coaching camp, however it kind of feels like everybody anticipated Pollard to get the ball.
Up to the Cowboys really feel assured in Pollard’s talent to switch Elliott as their Refuse. 1 again, it’s the gritty and dirty yards, like the ones in short-yardage and goal-line statuses, that can in the long run inform the tale.
“We have phone booth runs, and I like Tony in the phone booth,” mentor Mike McCarthy mentioned. “He’s a crease runner, and I always go back to [Hall of Fame running back] Marcus Allen. He always said short yardage, goal line was the easiest play in football because you’ve got all 22 guys there, and it’s easy to find a crease and accelerate it, and Tony has that instinct.”
Pollard is indexed at 6-foot, identical as Elliott, however he’s 215 kilos, some 11 not up to Elliott. Their builds are other. Elliott is extra compact, reputedly constructed to care for the battering a working again takes, however Pollard believes he can care for the cruel inside of runs, too.
“I mean, my style of running, like I try to run to avoid hits, but if it’s a situation that I can’t avoid it, then I’m finishing all my runs forward,” Pollard mentioned. “I just keep that mindset, trying to be conscious of the hits I take, but at the same time not being timid out there or tiptoe into things or anything like that.”
Pollard does now not have the similar pattern of enjoy as Elliott, however within the date two seasons he has proven the power to prevail. Over that reach, in line with TruMedia, Pollard had 100 yards on 18 carries of third-and-2 or much less, changing a primary indisposed 14 occasions. He has averaged 3.27 yards earlier than touch and 1.89 then.
Elliott had 42 carries for 153 yards with 32 first-down conversions. He averaged 2.02 yards earlier than touch and 1.62 yards then, however Elliott had 5 touchdowns to Pollard’s one.
In runs from combatants’ 5 yard-line, Pollard had 9 carries the date two seasons for 13 yards and 3 touchdowns. Elliott had 33 carries for 37 yards and 16 touchdowns.
“As a back, you understand the lanes. You understand what the play is designed to do,” Prescott mentioned. “I mean Zeke, credit to him, the head, the neck he had on him, he had a lot of those times it was just, ‘Boom!’ And he could run straight forward and into people. I think TP offers a little different dynamic of the quickness and being able to slide into the hole. So I think the job is going to get done the same way.”
Pollard has proven he may care for extra paintings each past for the reason that Cowboys decided on him within the fourth spherical in 2019. His carries have long gone from 86 to 101 to 130 to 193 utmost season, when he ran for 1,007 yards and was once named to the Professional Bowl.
However how a lot more paintings can he care for? He has had only one recreation in his profession with greater than 20 carries (22 as opposed to the Packers utmost season) and two extra with a minimum of 15 (15 as opposed to the Minnesota Vikings, 18 as opposed to the New York Giants in back-to-back weeks utmost season).
Pollard, who’s enjoying this season at the $10.091 million franchise tag, would be the Refuse. 1 again, however McCarthy’s plan is to virtue a number of of them, although Malik Davis, Rico Dowdle and Deuce Vaughn are untested at the moment. McCarthy is taking a look extra on the touches consistent with recreation than carries consistent with recreation.
“That’s why the run-by-committee is usually the best way to go,” McCarthy mentioned. “Running back is a stress position, each and every year. So you got to have a stable there.”
Pollard is coming off a damaged leg and surgical operation to fix a prime ankle sprain, accidents suffered within the playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers. He’ll now not play games within the preseason, however there was disagree factor all over the learning camp practices.
“He’s put his foot in the ground on a number of runs,” McCarthy mentioned. “I definitely think he’s back.”
And Pollard desires to turn out there’s extra that he can do, at the same time as a short-yardage and goal-line again.
“I’m prepared for any moment that they feel like I need to be in there for,” Pollard mentioned, “and I’m ready for whatever.”
