Shannon Sharpe wrong about Cowboys, right about Ezekiel Elliott

ESPN First Take guest host Shannon Sharpe is right about running back Ezekiel Elliott, but wrong in his analysis of the Dallas Cowboys as a whole.

It seems like a day doesn’t go by without someone talking about the Dallas Cowboys. These days, it usually revolves around what the team did in the draft that has everyone talking.

The latest is ESPN “analyst” Shannon Sharpe, who isn’t buying the pick of Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott for the Cowboys. He was on ESPN’s First Take recently to discuss the notion that Elliott makes the Cowboys better.

"“So you want me to believe and you want all the people that are watching this show today, because they drafted [Ezekiel] Elliott, now all of the sudden they are the beasts of the East?” – Sharpe on First Take earlier this week via the Dallas Morning News"

Sharpe went on to say the Cowboys “have been nothing” for the past four years.

While the former tight end is right about Dallas not being better only because the addition of Elliott, as he suggests, he is wrong about the team being nothing recently. The Cowboys won the NFC East in 2014 and were a bad call away from playing the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship game. That is not a “nothing” year.

However, Sharpe is right about Elliott. The Cowboys won’t be better just because they drafted the highly touted running back. They will be better because they added Elliott, they get a healthy trio of their best players back and upgraded at their talent on defense.

Couple the addition of Zeke with the return of quarterback Tony Romo, wide receiver Dez Bryant and cornerback Orlando Scandrick and it will all go a long way in helping the Cowboys return to the top of the NFC East.

Sharpe might have also missed the improvements the Cowboys made on defense. The team signed defensive tackle Cedric Thornton, who is a massive upgrade at the one-technique and will benefit by having Byron Jones at safety full-time. The draft also brought in two more pieces in defensive tackle Maliek Collins and defensive end Charles Tapper, who many consider a steal for the Cowboys.

We might not know how much of an upgrade these players are on defense, but we know they are better than the players were last year.

So no, Shannon, Elliott alone doesn’t make them better, as he asserts. But it’s a team game and the Dallas Cowboys got better in many ways this off-season. Will it be enough to win the division; we shall see.

Ezekiel Elliott will be a big part of the Cowboys in 2016, but he’s far from the only player that can make a difference this season.

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