Before the news of the possible suspension of Ezekiel Elliott for a game or two to begin 2017 NFL season, Dallas Cowboys’ star running back was probably projected to be the first overall pick in the most fantasy drafts all across the multiple fantasy football platforms. Now, with him maybe missing some action at the start of the year, will that fact alone hurt his draft stock? Should it?
Well, probably yes, but not by a lot. What we mean by that is he will still get drafted as the first overall pick in many drafts. People usually focus on the running backs in the early round as there aren’t many top quality fantasy choices at the running back position. Only starters are great for fantasy, and on some teams, the running game is done by a committee.
When you add all of this to the fact that Ezekiel Elliott is the most used running back in the league as the Cowboys’ 60 percent of the plays on first-and-10 have been running plays and Elliott was the leading rusher in the NFL, you can see why he will still be the number one pick in many drafts even if he plays just 14 or 15 games.
But, his stock is going to take a bit of a hit as there will be people who were on the fence about drafting either him or, for example, Le’Veon Bell or David Johnson, that will pick one of those two before Zeke just because of the games that he might miss. Still, Ezekiel Elliott should have another monster fantasy year.
