Dallas Cowboy’s Ezekiel Elliott an MVP for NFL and the running back position itself

Gregg Patton as the running back has faded from importance in American football, Ezekiel Elliott of the Dallas Cowboys has this year forced the position back into the forefront.

Dallas Cowboys' Ezekiel Elliott runs past a defender in an NFL game in October. Morry Gash / AP Photo

For running backs, it often seems that NFL stands for Not Friendly League.

The Players Association claims that runners’ careers last an average of 2.57 years, the shortest span of any position. The reason is obvious. They are the targets of more hits from more angles than anyone, and must initiate contact as blockers even when they don’t carry the ball.

Any injury, from head to hands to toe, that damages the skills that make a running back successful – speed, agility, elusiveness and toughness – can render him nearly useless in doing his job.

Plus, some would say, running backs are so often injured, and so easily replaced by the next man on the depth chart, that using a first-round pick on one is folly.

One opposing argument is named Ezekiel Elliott.

The Dallas Cowboys rookie running back has helped lift the team to an NFL-best 11-1 record, perhaps an even more crucial factor in their rise than rookie quarterback Dak Prescott. Both, no doubt, benefit from the Cowboys’ celebrated offensive line, recognised as the league’s best.

But it is Elliott who is leading the league in rushing yards (1,285), and is such a threat in the open field, that Dallas has increased his role as a pass catcher, as well.

Only the Arizona Cardinals’ versatile David Johnson has more combined rushing-receiving yards (1,709 to Elliot’s 1,607) among running backs.

“I just like the ball in my hands, whether I’m running it or catching it,” Elliott told ESPN.com recently.

Backs like Elliott and Johnson, and a few others, are keeping the flame burning for the position, proving that the elite ones should be valued and appreciated.

No doubt it is a passing league, dominated by star quarterbacks and, to a slightly lesser extent, gifted wide receivers. The aerial game is glamorous, aided in recent decades by rule changes to facilitate receivers getting open and quarterbacks staying safe.

Why fight for four yards in the physical ground game, when picking up eight through the air has gotten so much easier?

That’s why some scoffed when Elliott was chosen with the fourth overall pick in the draft last spring, only the second running back taken in the first round since 2012.

That’s why quarterbacks have won the Most Valuable Player trophy nine of the past 10 years, and the likes of Derek Carr of the Oakland Raiders, Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and Prescott are darlings of MVP speculation again with a month to go in the regular season.

Credit Elliott for barging in on the conversation. Former Cowboys quarterback-turned-television analyst Troy Aikman endorsed Elliott for MVP in a recent broadcast. In various media polls projecting MVP candidates, Elliott routinely is mentioned in the top three, if not first.

If he reverses the fashionable quarterback trend, he would be the first running back to be named MVP since Adrian Peterson in 2012.

Elliott’s all-around usage, of course, has become an anomaly in the NFL. Most teams prefer not to rely on one super back who plays first, second and third downs. Depending on down and distance, most backs are shuffled in and out, according to their skills as runner, receiver and pass blocker.

Besides Elliott and Johnson, Le’Veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Melvin Gordon of the San Diego Chargers and Spencer Ware of the Kansas City Chiefs are providing a wider body of evidence for special, do-it-all backs who aren’t easily replaced by the next man up.

For the sake of the next generation of talented backs, guys, just stay healthy.

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