Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott has seen his role reduced since he opened the season as the starting running back, and according to Clarence Hill of ALLCITY DLLS, Elliott isn't sure why.
"Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott confirmed he has talked to the coaches about his role and remains dumbfounded by his lack of opportunities at least as red zone back," Hill wrote on his X account.
Hill then wanted the record to show that Elliott wasn't being a selfish teammate and 'simply answered the questions he was being asked' about his reduced role.
“It’s definitely a little different but keep your head down,” Elliott said, via Hill.
“I just focus on being a good teammate. I’ve been focusing on continuing to help lead this team and I’m not making it about me, it’s about this football team (winning) football games.”
Cowboys owner and GM Jerry Jones was asked about the report when he joined the K&C Masterpiece for his weekly visit Friday on 105.3 The Fan.
"That's an exxaggeration. Dumfounded is a mischaracterization and a bad description of how he feels about things. ... We're saving him, and we should be," Jones said. "Rico [Dowdle] is an outstanding running back. He's always had the challenge because of his size of doing his blocking and protecting the quarterback. But his big problem has been what? He's had injuries of the course of his career. So it would be madness to depend on [that]. ... Zeke is there and we want to protect him over this particular period of time."
Elliott played 32 snaps in Week 1, 28 in Week 2, 15 in Week 3, 10 in Week 4, and 23 in Week 5, and notably yielded a goal-line carry to Dowdle in the final minute of last week's win at Pittsburgh that Dowdle fumbled but Dak Prescott was able to recover.