Jerry Jones eager to 'replicate' one-two punch from Tony Pollard, Ezekiel Elliott

As things stand for the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones and Co. will dish out a historic sum for the running backs room in 2023. Thanks to a $16.7 million cap hit coming for Ezekiel Elliott and another $10.09 for Tony Pollard‘s franchise tag, Dallas will have a $27.68 million cap hit from running backs alone next season.

Although Jones plans to do what he can to reduce that figure, mostly by negotiating with Elliott, he made it clear at the NFL combine that he wants to run back the one-two punch for the Cowboys.

“I know I’ve got a reputation for being reluctant to look at great players as they go into the later years of their careers,” Jones said. “But I don’t need empathy or a feeling of ‘Look what he’s done for us,’ to turn on the tape and look at what a difference-maker he was last year.

“If I could replicate the feeling that I had before Tony Pollard got hurt, and the feeling I had with Zeke with good weeks of practice behind him ready to go into the playoffs, I’d dial that up right now.

after tagging Tony Pollard the Cowboys are spending:

$27,681,000 of their 2023 salary cap on RBs

$16,720,000 – Ezekiel Elliott
$10,091,000 – Pollard
$870,000 – Malik Davis

that would be the highest total in NFL history

and equates to over 12% of the salary cap pic.twitter.com/65Erg8BNrM

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 6, 2023

After leading the Cowboys’ run game in each season since his rookie year, Elliott heavily split time with Tony Pollard in 2022, resulting in the least productive season so far for the 27-year-old.

Over 103 career NFL regular season games for Dallas, however, he has rushed for 8,262 yards with 68 rushing touchdowns.

Elliott totaled 876 rushing yards in the regular season and just 53 rushing yards in the two postseason games. Meanwhile, Pollard notched his first 1,000-yard rushing season and made the Pro Bowl.

Cowboys plan to increase run game with Elliott, Pollard

The Cowboys ranked eighth in rushing yards in 2022 and second in rushing touchdowns with 24. Mike McCarthy told reporters he wants to run the ball more, not less next season, making it even more likely that the Cowboys try to hold on to both top running backs.

“Kellen (Moore) wants to light the scoreboard up, but I want him to run the damn ball so I can rest my defense,” McCarthy said as he discussed philosophical differences with his former OC. “I think when you’re a coordinator, you know but you’re in charge of the offense. Being a head coach and being a play caller, you’re a little more in tune with (everything).

“I don’t desire to be the No. 1 offense in the league. I want to be the No. 1 team in the league with the number of wins and a championship. And if we’ve got to give up some production and take care of the ball a little better to get that, then that’s what we’ll do because we have a really good defense.”