at the age of 27 he went from being one of the next faces of the NFL to not even wanted by his own team the biggest problem and I'll end it like this Zeke has a first team name with second Team game here is the story of the rise and fall of Ezekiel Elliott from the moment he took his first breath it was crystal clear that Elliott was going to be a star athlete his mom and dad attended the University of Missouri where his dad was a linebacker and his mom ran track after winning a high school state championship in three different sports on top of that his grandfather attended Drake University where he played basketball and his uncle played ball professionally overseas so nobody in the Elliott family was surprised when Zeke excelled at every sport he played growing up he played basketball baseball and of course football Elliot quickly earned a reputation for his playing style that was extremely uncommon for a kid while playing running back during a scrimmage he kept laying out the same Defender over and over again even though he didn't have the ball people watching were confused why Elliott was going so hard without the ball so someone asked him why he kept doing this and he responded coach says you don't block you don't get the ball while almost any other player at that age would only care about scoring touchdowns Elliot was already thinking about and working on blocking out of the back field it was a mindset that hinted at big things to come for the youngster in high school he was a three- sport Varsity athlete starring on the football basketball and track teams with all three of them Elliot relied on a very special combination of power and speed someone that strong simply wasn't supposed to be able to move at the speeds he could Elliot showed this off on the track while dominating the competition as a senior he won state championships in four different events 100 meter dash the 200 met Dash 110 M High hurdles and the 300 meter hurdles Elliot added one more trophy to his shelf by being named the state of Missouri's Gatorade track athlete of the year on the football field he leaned on this otherworldly ability to become nearly Unstoppable by running defenses over or simply outrunning them as a junior he rushed for 1,82 yards and 34 touchdowns while adding in 401 receiving yards and six more touchdowns then as a senior Elliott ran for 2,155 yard and 40 touchdowns while totaling over 3,000 all-purpose yards and 50 scores after having torn it up on the grid iron and the track Elliot established himself as a highly rated consensus fourstar football recruit he was highly sought after by top programs around the nation like Ohio State Florida State Arkansas and Missouri there was plenty of pressure on him to follow in his parents Footsteps in P Missouri but Elliott ultimately decided to start his own legacy and committed to the Buckey I'll be taking my talents to Columbus to the Ohio University however he was forced to wait his turn before he could begin writing his own story during Elliott's freshman season at OSU he only carried the ball 30 times and primarily played special teams the following year Elliot finally got his chance to prove himself when the running back ahead of him left for the NFL Zeke seized the moment and exploded onto the college football scene finishing with 1,878 rushing yards the second most for one season in the program's storied history in osu's two playoff games with all eyes glued on him he ran for 476 yards and six touchdowns on his way to Leading the Buckey to a national title Elliott Then followed up this storybook season the next year by rushing for 1,821 yards and 23 touchdowns feeling like there was nothing left to show he gave up his final year of Eligibility and declared for the 2016 NFL draft despite playing for only three seasons and being the starter in just two of them Elliot managed to finish second all time on osu's career rushing yards list with 4,410 and fourth all time in rushing touchdowns with 44 heading into the draft he had earned a reputation for being one of the most complete running backs in recent memory on top of being a versatile threat out of the backfield with his ability to catch and run the ball Elliot was also an extremely effective pass blocker it's why in an era where teams no longer believe in building around running backs the Cowboys still took Elliott with the four th overall pick with the numbers he put up in college and the unusually high draft pick used on him as a running back Elliot was expected to shine in Dallas on day one unlike his fellow rookies there was no time to adjust to playing at the next level ahead of week one of his rookie season he was named the Cowboys starting back and things got off to a far from ideal start for him in the season opener he had just 51 rushing yards on 20 carries then in week two he had 21 carries for 83 yards and fumbled twice even though it was still very early in the year people began to question if Dallas had reached in drafting Elliott the next few games were going to be crucial for not only proving them wrong but also boosting Elliott's self-confidence in each of the following four games Elliot rushed for over 100 yards for a total of 569 rushing yards Elliott built off this sudden momentum and finished the year rushing for 1,631 yards and 15 touchdowns as just a rookie he led the league in rushing yards and was third in rushing touchdowns with the third most rushing yards in a season by a rookie in league history Elliott was named first team allpro in the postseason that year Elliott Rose to the occasion and had 125 rushing yards in the Cowboys 3431 divisional round loss to the Packers he became just the second rookie in franchise history to rush over 100 yards in a playoff game in what felt like the blink of an eye Elliot had gone from being labeled a potential bust to a certified Young Star he had the perfect combination of athleticism power and speed where he could beat defenses however he wanted whether it was hurling Trucking or leaving them in the dust Elliot seemed borderline Unstoppable but just when it looked like he had it all figured out Elliott's world came crashing down a month before the 2017 season the NFL suspended Elliott Ezekiel Elliott has been suspended for six games he's the first player disciplined under the NFL's new domestic violence policy after a year-long investigation due to accusations of domestic violence against his ex-girlfriend this led to a series of appeals by Elliott that actually allowed him to play in Dallas's first State Games after no shortage of back and forth between courts and judges Elliott halfway into the season finally accepted a six-game suspension playing in only 10 games that year he finished with 983 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns his absence was certainly felt by the Cowboys who missed the playoffs after going 13 and three the year before heading into the 2018 campaign Elliott knew that showing up out on the field would be the only way to get people to stop talking about his actions off of it he came out of the gate as a man on a and in his first four games total 426 rushing yards and 125 receiving yards as the year went on Elliot channed all his frustrations and punished defenses with his bulldozing running style he also turned on the Jets with his Breakaway speed when he didn't feel like running over guys in his second full season of playing Elliott again took home the league rushing title with 1,434 yards on the ground he also added 567 receiving yards for good measure as he was named to his second Pro Bowl his dominance Play Led the Cowboys back into the postseason and earned them a matchup with the Seahawks in the Wild Card round in that game Elliott put the team on his back rushing for 137 yards and a touchdown in a 2422 Victory then in Dallas's divisional round game against the Rams he was locked down and limited to just 47 yards on 20 carries in a 3022 loss this left a sour taste in Elliot's mouth after an impressive bounceback season but it didn't stop him from believing that he deserved to get paid big time that off season so after the boys picked up the fifth year option on his contract Elliot during training camp held out and demanded an extension just before the 2019 season was set to begin Dallas finally caved signing him to a 6-year extension worth $90 million with 50 million of it guaranteed it made Elliott the highest paid running back in the league anytime a player inks a massive contract like that the following year they're expected to take their play and their team to another level for Elliot and the cowboys that didn't exactly happen he put together a solid season with 1,357 rushing yards fourth most in the league but the team went 8 and8 and missed the playoffs 2020 was supposed to be the year where Dallas figures it out and Elliott reclaims his throne as top running back in the league it was indeed a turning point for both parties just not in the right direction as the team went 6 and 10 Elliot finished with only 979 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns it was the lowest rushing total of his career even lower than the season in which he was suspended for six games people wondered if this was just a fluke for him or if it was the new Norm playing all 17 games in 2021 Elliot only had 1,2 rushing yards the explosiveness he had used to become a star just wasn't there anymore and this time his struggles didn't bring the team down with him the Cowboys went 12 and five and began to lean on someone else in the running game to carry the load with Elliot having lost a step Tony Pard had his coming out party rushing for 719 yards while averaging 5.5 yd per carry he went from being known as Elliot's backup to fans calling for him to get more touches or even be the starting back Dallas was in a delicate position it wasn't long since they had made Elliot the highest paid back in the league and they weren't about to just give up on him so in 2022 the Cowboys ditched the traditional starter and backup setup to implement a split two-man running game as they did this it became clear that one player was just better or more effective than the other That season Elliot finished with 876 rushing yards on 3.8 yards per car he was his first three years in the league and every year from that point it was decline decline decline while Pard had 1,7 rushing yards on 5.2 yards per carry Elliott had gone from one of the top backs in the league to a glorified short yardage powerb it was a tough pill to swallow for Dallas given his contract situation but there was no hiding it anymore numbers don't lie and Pard had to be the number one guy moving forward so during this off season the Cowboys did something that would have once been completely Unthinkable on March 15th they released Elliot the Cowboys are releasing Ezekiel Elliott former rushing Champion he was set to count $16.7 million against the salary cap and the team realized he simply wasn't worth that anymore by cutting him Dallas saved nearly $1 million against the 2023 cap meanwhile they franchise tagged Pard for just over $10 million at the age of 27 Elliott still has plenty of time to prove the Cowboys wrong and show the world that is capable of much more than what he's done recently but landing in another split backfield with the Patriots this season it looks like his days is a Bell cow back may be over only time will tell whether Elliot was a flash in the pan or if these were nothing more than a couple of down years
