Ezekiel Elliott Responds to Anonymous NFL Coach Saying He's Outside Top 10 RBs

An anonymous NFL offensive coach says he's witnessing signs of decline from Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott heading into the 2020 season.

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler polled 50 league executives, coaches, scouts and players, who combined to rank Elliott as the league's third-best back behind the New York Giants' Saquon Barkley and Carolina Panthers' Christian McCaffrey. Not everyone was convinced he deserved that high praise, though.

"Very few breakout runs, doesn't look as strong anymore," the anonymous coach, who ranked Elliott outside the top 10 at the position, told Fowler for an article released Thursday. "Feels like he's about 60 to 70 percent of what he was."

Elliott responded to the coach's low ranking and comments on Twitter:

If he's started to decline after accumulating 1,358 touches across his first four years with Dallas, it hasn't shown up in his baseline numbers.

The 24-year-old Ohio State product recorded 1,357 rushing yards on 301 carries (4.5 YPC) with 12 touchdowns in 2019 despite not signing a new contract until less than a week before the start of the regular season. He added 54 catches for 420 yards and two scores.

He ranks first in rushing yards (5,405) and second in rushing touchdowns (40) among all backs since the Cowboys selected him with the fourth overall pick in the 2016 draft, per Pro Football Reference.

While Elliott was diagnosed with COVID-19 in June, he says he is feeling "normal":

The three-time Pro Bowl selection will be expected to handle a massive role for the Cowboys once again in 2020, and one NFL personnel evaluator thinks he's still uniquely built for the lead back role.

"Probably the best natural traits—speed, power, balance," the evaluator told Fowler.

Dallas would like to see more big gains from Elliott after he tallied just four runs over 20 yards last season, per Fowler. His longest carry was 33 yards.

Otherwise, he's done everything the Cowboys could have asked over the past four years, and it's hard to justify ranking him outside the top 10 running backs based on his elite production.