Ezekiel Elliott had his best game of the season in Week 7, finishing as RB10 with 17.7 points in half-PPR leagues. The 27-year-old found the end zone twice, but he suffered a knee injury that jeopardized his status for Week 8. With Tony Pollard already beginning to usurp his production, fantasy managers are wondering whether Elliott will suit up for Dallas’s game against Chicago and whether or not to start him. Here is what we know right now.
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Ezekiel Elliott to ‘likely’ miss Week 8
Jerry Jones reportedly confirmed the plan for Ezekiel Elliott to sit out against Bears on Sunday.
Fantasy Impact
“It had everything to do with how we’re doing this weekend with this bye coming up,” Jones said. “I’m not so sure we would’ve done it this way had we not had the bye.” Elliott has not been officially ruled out, but it sounds likely. Tony Pollard would be an RB1 play in his absence.
Relevant News
- Ezekiel Elliott (knee) misses second practice
- Ezekiel Elliott not practicing Wednesday due to knee sprain
Check out our NFL News Desk for the latest injury news
What the Experts are Saying
Elliott is the RB25 in fantasy points per game, but he should be considered nothing more than a touchdown-dependent RB3 moving forward. He’s averaged 16.5 touches and 67.9 total yards this season while relying on touchdowns (four total, eighth-most). He saved his day last week with two scores, but his role is slowly starting to dry up. Over the last three games, he has drawn only one target through the air, and finally, in Week 7, the route run rate flipped in Pollard’s direction. Elliott is 50th in yards per touch, 43rd in juke rate, and 54th in yards created per touch. I would love to say the juicy matchup with the Bears’ run defense vaults him into RB2 territory, but outside of his two luck-boxed touchdowns in Week 7, he face-planted against the Lions’ hapless run defense with 3.8 yards per carry.
-Derek Brown
Ezekiel Elliott did exactly what he was expected to do in Week 7. Smash. 15 carries for 57 yards and 2 rushing TDs against the league’s worst run defense. But again. Zero targets. So all that glitters is not gold for Zeke. Because this is the exact time to SELL HIGH. For back-to-back weeks, Elliott has split backfield opportunities near a dead-even split with Tony Pollard. And in Week 7, we saw something unthinkable. Pollard out-snapped Zeke (65% to 49%). Elliott also didn’t miss any time after taking a shot to the knee that initially looked much worse. As a two-down TD-dependent grinder back – that isn’t even the best rusher on his own team – Elliott is the poster boy to sell high this week.
-Andrew Erickson
The combination of a grade 2 MCL + thigh bruise would cost most RBs 3-4 weeks. Zeke has historically been aggressive about returning quickly, so we’d lean towards the 3 week timeline. 5 weeks post-injury is when our data projects the return of his full pre-injury productivity.
-Deepak Chona
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