Who Should I Start? Ezekiel Elliott or D'Andre Swift

Saturday, March 30, 6:37 PM

Free-agent running back Ezekiel Elliott and the Dallas Cowboys may be headed toward a reunion. Elliott played for the New England Patriots during the 2023 NFL season, the only season of his nine-year career that he was not a member of the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas has a need at the running back position after they let Tony Pollard leave via free-agency, making Elliott a good fit to return to the team. Elliott ran for 642 yards and three touchdowns for the Pats last season while splitting the backfield with Rhamondre Stevenson. Depending on whether Dallas addresses the RB position in the NFL draft, Elliott would immediately have high-end RB3/flex value if he lands with his former team.

Tuesday, March 26, 4:39 PM

The Chicago Bears signing of former Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles running back D'Andre Swift was one of the first moves of free agency, and head coach Matt Eberflus suggested he will be a passing game weapon for the organization. "We just felt that we wanted a home-run hitter there. I think D'Andre brings that. We wanted a weapon back -; a guy who could be a weapon out of the backfield," Eberflus said. "I know that in situational football it's very difficult to be able to have the two guys outside covered, two tight ends covered, and then you got another situation where you have the weapon back inside. So that was critical." It sounds like Chicago is planning to utilize Swift out of the backfield more often, which was a role he excelled in while in Detroit. Swift posted just a 10% target share in his lone season in Philadelphia after being at 15.1% in 2022 and 18.4% in 2021. With Chicago almost certainly slated to take USC's Caleb Williams with the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Swift could see a ton of usage underneath as a receiver while Williams feels out the NFL game.