The Cowboys have a few other issues to deal with at the moment, so they’re not going to spend any extra effort babysitting running back Ezekiel Elliott.
Elliott missed six games last year (likely torpedoing any chances they had at the playoffs) following his suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.
But executive Stephen Jones said he was impressed with how Elliott has handled himself since then and doesn’t foresee a problem.
“You can only do so much” Jones said, via Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News. “These are grown men. I have a lot of confidence that Zeke has learned a lot. Hopefully he has. Because if he has and he changes his behavior and he’s able to stay on the field, we all know he can be one of the greatest to ever play the game, if he takes care of himself and takes care of his business off the field. I think Zeke wants that. He’s a competitor. I think he wants to be one of the best.
“He certainly knows that he’s got to take care of business too. We’ve had great players that have had to do better before. Michael [Irvin] will tell you that he had to learn valuable lessons. But he turned out to be a Hall of Famer.
“I think if Zeke will pay attention and do the right things off the field and be responsible then he can certainly have an amazing career.”
Elliott’s value to the team has been well-established, even if he’s nowhere close to Irvin’s level of accomplishment. But that only matters if he’s on the field, and making the kind of decisions off the field to allow it.