INDIANAPOLIS • The running back Class of 2017 had a message for Ezekiel Elliott on Thursday at the NFL Scouting Combine: Thank you. Thank you very much.
It’s not as if running back was becoming an endangered species, but in the pass-happy NFL the position certainly has been de-valued in recent years. The familiar chorus at draft time became: You can find a running back anywhere.
But then along came Elliott, the one-time high school phenom at John Burroughs who led the NFL in rushing this past season as a Dallas Cowboys rookie.