Cowboys RB Tony Pollard on prepping with Elliott this offseason: ‘We both are locked in’

Dak Prescott and his three-headed wide receiver monster get all the attention heading into 2021, and rightly so. Even without a proper offseason program, they came out of the blocks firing last year and were on a record-setting pace with their air assault before Prescott was lost for the season.

The Cowboys’ run game was not able to pick up enough of the slack, due to a combination of factors, like a piecemealed offensive line and backup passers who didn’t pose much of a threat to defenses. The team rushed for 1,788 yards in 2020, putting them squarely in the middle of the pack among teams leaguewide.

For the ’21 Cowboys to go further than last year, the ground attack has to improve. Running back Tony Pollard, the backup to two-time rushing champ Ezekiel Elliott, says simply getting the team together for OTAs- something they couldn’t do last summer- is a step in the right direction.

“It’s big,” Pollard told media members during minicamp. “There’s nothing [you can do] to simulate playing football other than playing football. There’s nothing that can simulate being out there with the guys you’re going to go to war with on Sunday and just getting that timing down, that chemistry down.”

Much of that chemistry boils down to a balancing act between Pollard and Elliott. Elliott is the well-paid workhorse, but 2020 saw him turn in the poorest numbers of his career. There are a variety of well-documented reasons, but the results on the field were unmistakable, ultimately leading to Pollard getting increasingly more action.

In 2019, Elliott played on 83.59% of the offense’s snaps, according to Pro Football Reference. Pollard, conversely, was on the field for just 17.75%. Over the course of 2020, though, those numbers changed significantly: Pollard’s snap count surged to 31.65%; Elliott’s dropped to 68.79%.

The team has praised Pollard’s electrifying playmaking abilities ever since drafting him out of Memphis, and is reportedly (still) looking for new ways to get him involved in the Cowboys offense. The versatile six-footer even saw reps at wide receiver during minicamp, but that may have been more a product of personnel availability than a sneak peek of some wild new play package.

Pollard and Elliott comprise what Pro Football Focus calls the second-best rushing duo in the NFL. Both will both have to be major contributors in whatever role they’re assigned for the Cowboys to find success this season. And the third-year back echoes something Prescott himself said recently, that Elliott looks to be on track to return to his former self.

“He’s definitely been locked in,” Pollard said of his backfield mate. “I can tell he took the right steps forward this offseason, getting his body right, getting in shape. Me and him, we also worked out together a lot of times during the offseason. We both are locked in this offseason, getting ready.”

Pollard credits running backs guru Josh Hicks with helping him and Elliott through a series of offseason workouts, videos of which have made their way to social media.

“It just helps a lot, especially the drills that he does,” Pollard explained. “It’s not a lot of drills that don’t happen in a game; it’s a lot of realistic drills. It may be, like, a cone drill or you have to dodge a barrel that’d be like an O-lineman or a linebacker blitzing. You just have to make some adjustments and cut based off of the drill he has. He does a good job of making it realistic so we can prepare for real-game situations.”

The real games are fast approaching, and Pollard believes the preparation he, Elliott, and the rest of the Cowboys offense are undertaking now will end up paying off.

“Our whole goal here is to win it all,” he offered. “If you’re not doing that, you’re falling short. That means there’s room for improvement all around.”

For the Cowboys rushing attack, that means putting themselves back in the upper echelon of the league’s ground games. And that will require both Elliott and Pollard to take what they’ve started, in their private workouts and OTAs, and step up their individual games and live up to their billing on Sundays this fall.

List

Cowboys News: Gallimore's goal, Landry's lodge, Romo's reps

List

4 Cowboys named to CBS Sports top 100 players rankings

Like this article?

Sign up for the Cowboys Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning

An error has occured

Please re-enter your email address.

Thanks for signing up!

You'll now receive the top Cowboys Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.