Dallas Cowboys: Ezekiel Elliott needs to rest in Week 17

After clinching the NFC East last weekend, the Dallas Cowboys need to rest their star running back Ezekiel Elliott in a meaningless Week 17 game.

The Dallas Cowboys come into their Week 17 matchup with the New York Giants with nothing to play for. With a win, last weekend Dallas locked up the NFC East title and is locked into the number four seed in the playoffs.

Considering the game will mean nothing in terms of standings, the Cowboys would be making a huge mistake not to rest star running back Ezekiel Elliott this weekend. Elliott has been the M.V.P. of this Cowboys team this season, and without him, they would be nowhere close to a division title.

With how much Elliott has had to do to propel the Dallas offense, he has had to carry an extremely heavy workload. Coming into Week 17 Elliott leads the National Football League with 381 total touches on the season, 50 more than second place running back Saquon Barkley of the New York Giants.

Elliott also leads the league with 304 rushing attempts on the season and is second among running backs in total snaps played at 841 total snaps on the year. Being the talented back he is Elliott has always been used to carrying the ball near the top of the league every season.

In 2016 he carried the ball 322 times which lead the NFL, and in his suspension shortened 2017 year he still carried the ball 242 times in 10 games. One thing Elliott has not endured in his young career is how involved he was in the passing game this season which greatly increased his workload.

The former Ohio State Buckeye was targeted 95 times in the passing game this season and had 77 catches for 567 yards. These total receptions are more than his 2016 and 2017 numbers combined. If you have watched even one Cowboys game this season you see the kind of beating Elliott takes every week.

He is a physical runner, arguably the most physical in the league, and gets beat down game in and game out. Dallas relies on Elliott so much to kick-start and carries their offense that they cannot afford to play him in a meaningless Week 17 game.

If something were to happen to Elliott the Dallas offense would be sunk, and their playoff hopes would go down the drain. Now you could make this argument about any player on any best team, but Elliott has carried more of a workload this season than any player in the league.

If he is able to rest this weekend and come back for the playoffs with fresh leagues, it could turn into a nightmare for the rest of the league. If the Cowboys are smart, they will keep Ezekiel Elliott far away from the field this Sunday, and get him fresh to wreak havoc on whoever their first round opponent is.