Ezekiel Elliott could be the missing ingredient on your championship fantasy roster this year.
We all know that Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott is one of the premiere fantasy running backs, but what if it were possible he could be even more valuable in 2018? That’s where things are pointing this year with word that his pass catching could become a bigger part of the Cowboys offense.
According to David Moore of the Dallas Morning News, the Cowboys could be planning to utilize Elliott in the passing game more this season.
Through the first 25 games of his NFL career, Elliott has seen 77 targets, catching 58 of them for 632 yards and three touchdowns in the passing game.
With a depleted receiving corps, Elliott could be in line for an even bigger fantasy season.
Right now, Elliott is going as the RB3 in PPR drafts, behind Todd Gurley and Le’Veon Bell of the Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers, respectively.
It will hard to get Elliott to a point where drafters will feel more comfortable taking Elliott than those two, but it’s starting to feel like if you have a top-three pick, you will be handsomely rewarded either way.
Elliott is coming off a season in which he dealt with a looming suspension all season long until it finally came down in early November 2017 that he would serve a six-game suspension.
The one positive from all of that is that Elliott has even less mileage on his body.
A player like Elliott will be tasked with touching the ball hundreds of times every season and 2018 will be no different.
The Cowboys don’t have a lot right now in terms of pass-catching options.
At wide receiver, they have Terrance Williams, Allen Hurns, Tavon Austin and rookie Michael Gallup.
For tight ends, they have just Geoff Swain and Rico Gathers, who is more of a physical specimen than an NFL tight end at this point.
Even if these reports come true and Elliott has a bigger role, these guys won’t take a huge hit value-wise as they’re all a bit of an unknown. Gallup would be the guy to roll the dice on outside of Elliott.
Quarterback Dak Prescott threw the ball 490 times in 2017. That’s actually the least amount of attempts by a quarterback who started 16 games last season.
The point is, even if Prescott doesn’t throw much in 2018, we’re used to that. Not to mention he’s coming off a not-so-great year—it can only get better, right? They won’t be afraid to take risks with him in 2018, either.
Elliott could be in line for as many targets as he’s had in his entire career in 2018 alone.
That is fantasy value like we have yet to see from the Cowboys third-year running back.
Could Elliott be the RB1 in 2018? He has a real shot at it, especially where he’s developing his route-tree.
“I mean, yeah, they’re asking me to do a little more, a couple of different things. But it’s just kind of developing myself more as a route runner. In the past, I really wasn’t asked to run as many complex routes but now I have a couple of more routes to add to my route tree,” Elliott said.