'You feel like you let your teammates down': How Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott powered down year into offseason changes

OXNARD, Calif. — Ezekiel Elliott understands he was playing without starting quarterback Dak Prescott and often down at least three starting offensive linemen. He was competing in a year warped by COVID-19, under the Cowboys’ first new head coach in a decade.

But the sixth-year running back doesn’t look back at 2020 and recognize those excuses. He looks back at a career-low year—979 rushing yards, six touchdowns, his first career game missed due to injury—and sees a performance that doesn’t resemble the three-time Pro Bowl player Elliott believes he is still capable of being.

“Last year left a bad taste in my mouth,” Elliott said Thursday afternoon following the Cowboys’ first training camp practice. “The hardest part about last year is you feel like you let your teammates down. That hurts.”

So Elliott, who turned 26 on Thursday, went to work. He teamed up with Dallas-area private trainer Josh Hicks to hone his short-area quickness. Elliott dropped about eight pounds to 218, which he says is his lightest weight since his freshman year at Ohio State. The 5-7 Hicks offered an apt foil to the 6-0 Elliott.

“He’s a lot smaller than me, he has lot shorter legs than me and a lot more shifty,” Elliott said. “So I kind of look at my game and look at what I need to improve on and that’s kind going to the strengths of his game. So when I went to work with him, it was just kind of getting better at my weaknesses.”

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Elliott also delved into tape of his 2020 fumbles. He fumbled six times, losing four, in an uncharacteristic season further complicated by wrist and calf injuries. Sure, Elliott figures, NFL defenders have improved their ball-punching skills. But it’s his responsibility to improve his protection.

No more leaving his left hand exposed when he runs right. No more loose ball carriage as he jukes or spins.

“When you carry the ball, you kind of carry the whole hope of the whole team, organization and fan base,” Elliott said. “If you cough it up and give it to the other team, you’re letting everyone down, so I mean, that’s the No. 1 thing that’s my focus this year is protecting the ball.”

Thursday, Cowboys fans flocking to the team’s inaugural training camp process did not greet Elliott as if he let them down. Rousing choruses of happy birthday serenaded Elliott—“I don't think I have ever had that many people singing happy birthday at once,” he said—in addition to cheers as Elliott took handoffs from Prescott, who returned to 11-on-11 team drills for the first time since his ankle fracture and dislocation last October.

All-Pro offensive linemen in left tackle Tyron Smith and right guard Zack Martin were back after injuries sidelined each for time in 2020. Right tackle La’el Collins, a 61-game starter who missed all of 2020 with a hip injury, took reps in team drills as well.

The combination energized the birthday boy, whom McCarthy called “a magnet full of energy.” The energy carried Elliott up the sideline past rookie linebacker Micah Parsons on one team drill rep. He ran up the middle, cutting left as he displayed the short-area quickness Hicks guided this summer, on another.

Elliott doesn’t overstate a smooth day in a lone, unpadded practice. He emphasizes the lengths he feels he still needs to go to prove that he’s still capable of being the top-five draft pick who breaks off 20-plus-yard runs and changes the equation for his team even as he ages and shares touches with talented weapons at receiver and tight end. He’s adjusted his diet and training in hopes of reaching those goals. And Elliott, who expressed a desire to continue to grow as a team leader, said he received his COVID-19 vaccine despite growing up in a household that didn’t encourage vaccines.

“I wanted to put myself in the best situation to be out there for my team week in and week out,” Elliott said.

That’s the process he began via an offseason chock full of specially tailored workouts. It’s a process he now continues to advance with his most normal preseason in three years, after he held out of 2019 training camp entirely due to a contract dispute and NFL teams were significantly limited in 2020 due to COVID-19.

His quarterback is healthy. His offensive linemen are on the mend. And Elliott isn’t the only member of the team ready to raise the bar after a disappointing 6-10 campaign.

“We’ve got a lot to prove,” Elliott said. “I’m proud of this team and how hard we’ve worked this offseason to get back to where we are. And I’m excited where we’re going to go.”

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dallas Cowboys: Will a quicker Ezekiel Elliott mean a better RB?