Dez Bryant: Cowboys won't haze Ezekiel Elliott because 'we need him'
Zeke can put the credit card away because Dez is willing to pay for his own dinners
By
Jared Dubin
•
1 min read
Ezekiel Elliott has a very important role with the Dallas Cowboys. Basically, it's his job to be good enough that nobody on the opposing defense injures Tony Romo. We've all seen what happens to the Cowboys when Romo goes down. It's not pretty.
Per @RotoViz, the Cowboys' splits w/ and w/o Romo the past four years are nuts. pic.twitter.com/adnuvdzfVu
— Jonathan Bales (@BalesFootball) June 20, 2016
Things got even worse last year, with Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel, and Kellen Moore filling in for Romo after he broke his collar bone twice -- the second and third time in his career he suffered the same injury.
The Cowboys had their best offensive season in quite some time in 2014 when they based their offense around pounding the ball with DeMarco Murray behind the NFL's best offensive line, which opened things up for Romo to be more efficient than ever. (Romo led the NFL in completion percentage, yards per attempt, and passer rating that season.) That line has gotten even better with the addition of La'el Collins (in place of former starter Ronald Leary), and the Cowboys obviously think Elliott can help improve the ground game from last year when Romo was injured.
Because Elliott is so important to their offense, Dez Bryant says the Cowboys are unveiling a new strategy for the rookie running back: they're not hazing him.
Honestly, this is a pretty smart strategy. They definitely need Elliott's mind right for the season, so it's better to just not mess with him at all. And Dez has enough money to pay for his own dinners, what with that $70 million contract he signed last offseason.
