Why Cowboys Fan Skip Bayless Won’t Miss New Patriot Ezekiel Elliott

Fellow NFL running back Aaron Jones is confident Ezekiel Elliott still has “a lot left in the tank.”

But one of the most well-known Cowboys fans, who might not have missed a single one of Elliott’s 1,984 carries with Dallas, disagrees.

Skip Bayless eats, sleeps and breathes America’s Team, which will enter the 2023 NFL season with a new starting running back. The Cowboys in March said goodbye to Elliott after seven mostly great seasons in favor of fifth-year back Tony Pollard. Elliott lingered on the open market for five months but officially found a new home Wednesday.

Bayless believes the New England Patriots signed a shell of the player Elliott was in his Dallas prime. The FS1 talking head offered a bleak assessment of the 28-year-old on the latest episode of his self-titled digital show.

“I’ll say it again about Zeke: I was his biggest fan,” Bayless said. “Certainly, his rookie year, but that was by far his best year. That was his one and only great, great year during which he literally carried my Dallas Cowboys all the way to the (No.) 1 seed in the NFC. His stats went consistently down, down, down, down, down as he suffered the fate of what I call ‘Earl Campbell Syndrome.’ He just took too many hits, too quickly. He used up his hits in the National Football League.

“You’ve heard of shot fighters — just taking too many punches. You’ve heard of cauliflower ear in boxing. To me, Zeke is a shot back. He just died for too many Cowboy causes over these seven years. I don’t think he has much left. I will not miss him. I will not fear him when New England comes to play at Dallas. I will not fear Zeke. I’m sure he’ll suck it up and give whatever he has left to give.”

The expectations and excitement for Elliott in New England should have been subdued if Bill Belichick and company signed the three-time Pro Bowl selection to be their lead back or any sort of offensive savior. But Elliott seemingly was brought in to complement Rhamondre Stevenson and round out the Patriots’ backfield. The 2016 first-round pick, who never rushed for less than 876 yards in his first seven seasons, probably still has enough juice to do those jobs.

And while Bayless won’t fear Elliott, the same can’t be said for Dallas’ head coach. Mike McCarthy on Tuesday acknowledged he’s “not looking forward” to facing Elliott on Oct. 1 when New England visits AT&T Stadium.