Ezekiel Elliott could very well hold out of training camp in hopes of cashing in this offseason instead of waiting and possibly suffering a devastating injury and never receiving what he truly is owed.
It is no doubt that the Dallas Cowboys running back is one of the best at his position, but is he truly worth the money he thinks he should get.
One stat proves he isn’t.
Just take this piece of information from FiveThirtyEight that collected data that figured out Elliott ranks 22nd among running backs in win probability added to close out a game last season. He was behind running backs like Royce Freeman, Isaiah Crowell, Wayne Gallman and Zach Zenner.
“According to ESPN’s Stats & Information Group, the Cowboys were seventh in win probability added in 2018 on rushing attempts in the fourth quarter while they were ahead, excluding quarterback kneel-downs. Elliott carried the ball on the majority of those plays and had positive win probability added per play, which is good. But he was still just second on the team in average WPA behind quarterback Dak Prescott — and it wasn’t particularly close. Dak’s win probability added per play on 10 attempts was almost five times that of Zeke’s average WPA on 45 carries.
When we zoom out and compared Zeke with all running backs across the league, the situation gets bleak. Elliott was 22nd among qualifying backs when running to close out a game.”
This is notable because one of the biggest assets of a big time RB is the ability to close out games by teams that look to them to move the sticks and run down the clock.
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Elliott was bad at that last season.
