The pick also makes sense when looking to the long term.
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And while the consensus is he’ll have to wait until 2017 to make his National Football League debut after tearing two ligaments and sustaining nerve damage in his left knee on New Year’s Day against Ohio State, Smith begs to differ after the Cowboys took him with the 34th overall pick Friday night.
Elliott was born in Alton and attended elementary school there for two years before enrolling in a private St. Louis school. Elliott is expected to man the backfield for the next five years at least.
“Just because we have didn’t do Murphy, just because we have RB by committee, just because we have them 5 or 6 different ways doesn’t mean at all we’re not in the RB business”, said Jones. Elliott was definitely the best player available, even though Florida State defensive back Jalen Ramsey may have been a fit for a bigger position of need. The running game help is pretty self-explanatory. No matter how bad a defense is, they can’t give up points if they aren’t on the field. In those 3 games, Elliott had a grand total of 76 carries, 696 yards and 8 touchdowns.
If Elliott can win the starting job over McFadden and Morris, he will get a chance to play with quarterback Tony Romo and 2014 All-Pro receiver Dez Bryant.
Jones knows a little thing or two about what it’s like being a first round pick in Dallas, saying he’ll be quick to embrace the rookie.
To emphasise how impressive that is, Elliott rushed for 262 yards and 2 touchdowns in his Freshman year, meaning that the remaining 41 touchdowns and 3699 rushing yards came across his Sophomore and Junior seasons. Even when DeMarco Murray was carrying the ball, Dallas struggled to pound the rock into the end zone. He will be able to make a lot of plays after contact at the next level and will be very hard for opposing defensive coordinators to game plan against. Elliott will play a factor in trying to keep that number under 30. And what they decided was to return to what fueled their success in 2014, a dominate running game.
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What Cowboys are getting: A running back personally endorsed by former Cowboys Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin, both of whom hit the airwaves earlier this week touting the OSU back.
