Nobody In Recent Times Has Been Put In A Better Position To Succeed Than Ezekiel Elliott

Ahhh the NFL Draft, the place where dreams go to die. Typically what happens is the best players amongst the group get drafted to the absolute dregs of the league. There's a reason that team got to draft in the top 5 and the reason is that they were fucking terrible. Unless you cheat (I'm sorry, throw games) a la the Colts and nab an Andrew Luck, typically a young, talented kid gets thrown onto a terrible team. There have been exceptions, and even sometimes a team that is rebuilding, but just hasn't quite gotten there yet, will still draft high and grab a talented player in the top 10 on their ascent. Amari Cooper, for example, was drafted on a decent Raider team who just didn't have the pieces to get out of the bottom of the league. They used his talent and the upswing they were already on and Amari shined, as did the team, comparatively anyway. Enter the 2015 Romos. I call them the Romos because absent Antonio Ramiro Romo, the Dallas Cowboys cannot do shit. They suck. The Patriots won 11 games with Cassell, Hasslebeck has won games, Whitehurst mighta even snuck one in while I wasn't looking. But not Dallas...nope. They suck without Tony and what do you get when you absolutely suck? A top 5 pick.

Oh how we debated back and forth as a group. I was on team Ramsey. Dallas needed defense and they needed it bad. I'd have been satisfied with Bosa or Buckner too, because we all know Dallas can't rush the passer, but come draft day the powers that be decided the best defensive improvement to make was keeping their defense off the field. Anyone who saw Demarco Murray's 2014 campaign can see where they were coming from. Come draft night San Diego grabs Bosa and suddenly there was Elliott, waiting for whichever Jones you think is running the show. He was just too juicy to turn down and they selected him with their first overall pick. You really can't fault the Jones's here, the number really do back them up. Despite having a meh defense, keeping them rested and on the sidelines with an incredibly effective rushing attack totally worked. That Dallas team still allowed the same amount of Yards per Play on defense as the year before when they were historically bad, but the total points given up were greatly improved. Dallas finally got a playoff win and came within a "catch" of maybe getting to the NFC Championship.

Unlike typical talented players who are drafted high, Zeke has been placed in the most absolutely incredible situation in recent memory. Romo's injury and subsequent sucking of the Cowboys allowed them a high enough pick to nab the talented back. With the return of their prodigal son in Tony Romo, Zeke now gets to play for a team with a well respected passing attack, and gets to run behind the best run blocking line in all of football.

Running backs NEVER get put in this position. Teams usually suck and draft high because their QB play is abysmal. Even if the runner gets drafted to a team with a good line, the defense doesn't respect the pass and can stuff the box. This usually limits the ability for a young back to really show his stuff. Gurley performed well with the Rams and their nobody signal callers, but could you imagine if Todd had landed on a team with a capable gunslinger at quarterback for his rookie year? There were no 350 yards and 3td performances for the defense to respect. Romo is capable of doing that every week as, despite what his detractors will tell you, he has racked up almost unprecedented stats over the course of his career. Second rb pick Melvin Gordon got drafted to a team with Philip Rivers, but injury and terrible play by San Diego led them to rely more on the pass catching Woodhead.

Let's take a look back in recent years starting with the year prior seeing Sankey as the first rb off the board going to an awful passing Titans team. Hill landed with Cincinnati, but until this last year Dalton wasn't exactly known to be a guy who piled up the yards and tds (and I fully expect a decent regression to his career norms this year). Hyde went to a Niners team that was not good whatsoever, especially when it came to passing the football. In '13 we see Gio going to Cincy, again with the same caveat as Hill, followed by Leveon Bell, who is perhaps the best example of what we can hope for in Elliott. With Ben Roethlisberger under center, teams have no fucking clue what to do. The veteran can sling it deep, in the middle or to the sidelines, is surprisingly mobile and commands the respect of the defense when it comes to passing the football. Unsurprisingly, how do people feel about Bell? He's easily considered one of the best backs in the game, especially when it comes to fantasy. In the same draft we see Eddie Lacy two picks later, and how'd his rookie year leave people feeling about him? All time great qb play in front of Eddie left fantasy owners licking their lips. Donuts and injury have derailed the hype train a bit, but Lacy still fits the mold.

Looking back a little further we see a trio of backs drafted in the first in Trent Richardson, Doug Martin, and David Wilson. Trent landed on a terrible Browns team, as has every player drafted there since JFK was shot. Martin is an interesting study as Josh Freeman certainly is no hall of famer, but the Douggernaught still put together a great campaign. In Wilson we see the rb drafted to the team with the "best" passing quarterback in Eli Manning. David looked pretty damn good when he was given his opportunities, unfortunately we'll never find out how he would turn out as the football gods gave him a career ending neck injury.

I can really keep going on and on with this draft after draft, but I think you get my point. With a few exceptions here and there, a back getting drafted to a team with a shitty quarterback is usually not set up for success the way one going to a team with a better quarterback is. This in of itself is pretty obvious thinking, so what's my point exactly? My point is that none of these backs, looking back several years, has ever been put in a situation like Ezekiel Elliott will be put in. A few have had the qb play, but none have had this kind of line.

The Packers line in front of Lacy pales in comparison to Dallas' and while Bell's line has been okay, it's still not in the realm as the boys' down in Texas. It's entirely possible that no back has EVER been given this type of opportunity to shine in his rookie year. Is it an overstatement? Who else was drafted onto the team with the best run blocking offensive line in the game, while at the same time been handed a quarterback who can rack up stats like Tony Romo?

Mediocrity is not to be accepted. Playing "good" is not to be accepted. He has been put in the perfect place to shine and anything other than fantastic play will be considered a disappointment, and piss poor play will easily make him the biggest bust of all time. David Carr played behind such a terrible line that the qb never stood a chance. Jamarcus Russell's team blew, and so did he. T-rich got drafted to an awful Browns team and he himself sucked too, but none of these players were perfectly placed in a golden set of circumstances like Zeke has been. They all had flaws, but not Zeke's: He's landed in the best rookie scenario in all of the NFL.

So what's this all mean when it comes to real life football and us fantasy junkies? In real life I fully expect him to carry the rock the majority of the time now that fragile bodied pussy DMC got hurt by a cell phone, only ceding obvious passing downs to the underrated Dunbar. In fantasy I would confidently draft Zeke 1st overall in Dynasty drafts (even though I ranked him 3rd), and in redraft he should still be taken in the top 5. If asked to sum it up in a single sentence, I would make this statement and I would put my own mothers life behind it:

No Running Back has been set up for success like Ezekiel Elliot in 2016, and if he does not live up to the hype and play well, he will have blown the best opportunity in NFL History.

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