In 1983, Rams rookie running back Eric Dickerson ran for 1,808 yards, a mark that had never been reached by a rookie before and has never been approached since. Now Cowboys rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott thinks it’s time to break that record.
Elliott said this week that he has talked to Dickerson about his plans to break the record that Dickerson has held for 33 years.
“Eighteen hundred yards. We joke about it all the time. I told him I’m going to get it,” Elliott said, via ESPN.
Dickerson confirmed that’s what Elliott told him.
“He told me through his agent that he was going to break my record,” Dickerson said this week. “I just laughed and said, ‘Good luck.’ Many have said that; all have failed. I like the record because you get one shot at it and that’s it, because you’re a rookie one time. You don’t get three or four shots at that record. ‘Oh, let me do it again.’ Nah.”
That’s an extremely tall order, a goal that Elliott is unlikely to achieve. But it’s nice to see a rookie with lofty ambitions. The Cowboys like Elliott’s confidence.