Zeke's First Step - And First Slip - With The Cowboys
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IRVING (105.3 THE FAN) - On one of his first touches in a Dallas Cowboys uniform at Friday's rookie minicamp at Valley Ranch, first-rounder Ezekiel Elliott slipped during an agility drill, causing his body to nudge one of the cones.
His punishment? Pushups.
My evaluation of Zeke's work in his first day of what Michael Irvin and I used to derisively call "The Underwear Olympics?"
Elliott won't slip very often.
"I understand what's expected of me,'' Elliott said to the assembled media before reclining on one of the large blue-leather coaches in the center of the locker room. "I understand the lineage for the running back position of the Dallas Cowboys."
Zeke also understands there are other runners who will be working with him… albeit not likely in front of him.
"It's our job to try to bring the best players to our team, and everybody understands that, and we make that abundantly clear, and certainly it's our job to make sure all the pieces of the puzzle fit together," said head coach Jason Garrett. "So have a guy like Zeke Elliott available to us to draft him, we think that helps our team. But to also have Darren McFadden and Alfred Morris and Lance Dunbar and some of the other guys there, it's a really healthy running back room, and we're excited about all those guys."
It's "healthy.'' But Elliott is the most "healthy'' of all, in most every possible way. He's even cooperative and polite with the media, as was the case for all of the draftees on Friday. They will learn and that will change, but it will be nice while it lasts.
And early indications are it'll be nice watching Zeke not slip — and that figures to last a long time.
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