Like everyone else, Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott has shared an opinion on the decisions by running backs Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey to skip their team’s middling bowl games and begin NFL draft prep early. It started like this:
Ezekiel Elliott loved his final bowl game, but gets why NFL prospects might skip
The star Cowboys rookie’s last bowl happened to become a big part of this debate.
McCaffrey’s skipping the Sun Bowl, one of the Pac-12’s lowest bowl bids, and Fournette’s skipping the Citrus, a bowl so second-tier, Steve Spurrier once mocked Tennessee for repeatedly playing in it. Elliott doesn’t view that as an excuse:
But Elliott declared early and skipped his senior season. That was a great idea, as he’s currently a contender for NFL MVP and has helped the Cowboys clinch a playoff spot. He sees a difference between skipping a game and leaving a year early.
Fournette’s been battling an ankle injury all year, and McCaffrey missed a game with injury. After Notre Dame linebacker and eventual Cowboys teammate Jaylon Smith lost millions of dollars due to an injury in last season’s Fiesta Bowl against Elliott’s Buckeyes, avoiding a costly injury in a bowl game is a valid concern. Zeke agrees.
And this part is fair, too:
It’s important to note McCaffrey’s and Fournette’s teammates have publicly supported their decisions to skip these bowl games. Even the Sun Bowl doesn’t mind, for whatever that’s worth:
Elliott began his comments as a critique based on his own experiences (albeit while leaving himself open to people pointing out he likewise left school early), then ended up seeing the thinking behind someone else’s choice.
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