Ezekiel Elliott has 521 rushing yards and Tony Pollard has 366 rushing yards. The Cowboys have 11 games remaining.
That puts Elliott on pace for 1,476 rushing yards. The only season he has had more rushing yards in a season was in his rookie year when he led the league with 1,631. He also had the most rushing yards in the league in 2018 when he went for 1,434. Pollard, who is in his third season, has never rushed for more than 455 yards in a single season.
“I think they’re complementing each other in the running game,” Peete said of Elliott and Pollard, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com. “When you have two different styles of runners, I’ve always felt that that’s a successful run game because you have one guy that’s a pounder, but he also has the ability to make big plays and break big runs. Then you have a guy that’s faster, quicker that presents a little bit different, I guess, perception to the defense. Kind of like a Marion (Barber) and Felix (Jones) or a DeMarco (Murray) and Felix.
“One guy’s in there and he’s pounding, pounding, pounding. A lot of people will say he’s doing the dirty work, but he’s not really doing that. He’s running the ball. Then the other guy comes in and he has a little bit different style. Well, the defense sees that style then all of a sudden their angles get kind of confused because they’re used to seeing Zeke run that play, they take an angle to come and make the tackle, then all of a sudden the guy’s a little bit quicker, and he’s a little further up the field and the angle gets messed up.”
The last time two running backs on the same team each rushed for over 1,000 yards was 2009 when Carolina’s Jonathan Stewart went for 1,133 and DeAngelo Williams finished with 1,117, though quarterback Lamar Jackson and running back Mark Ingram accomplished the feat with the 2019 Ravens.
Only five other running back teammates in NFL history have both topped 1,000 rushing yards in the same season: Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris with the 1972 Dolphins, Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier with the 1976 Steelers, Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner with the 1985 Browns, Warrick Dunn and Michael Vick with the 2006 Falcons and Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward with the 2008 Giants.
Browns teammates Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt were on pace for 1,000 yards each until calf injuries for both players.