Ezekiel Elliott injury update: Cowboys RB reveals he played through torn PCL during playoff loss, 2021 NFL season

Ezekiel Elliott endured one of his worst seasons as a pro for the Cowboys in 2021. He still totaled 1,002 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns, but he averaged a career-low 58.9 yards per game and just 4.2 yards per carry, the third-lowest mark of his career.

That said, it seems that there was a reason Elliott had his share of struggles this year. He simply couldn’t get healthy while playing through an injury.

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Elliott revealed after the Cowboys’ 231-17 season-ending loss agianst the 49ers that he played through a partially torn PCL during the season. He couldn’t make the injury worse, so he opted to push through it.

“I won’t need a procedure (in the offseason),” Elliott told reporters after the game, per the Cowboys’ official website. “It was an injury that wasn’t going to get worse, but it was going to take time.”

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Elliott suffered the injury in Week 4 and from that point on frequently ended the week on the Cowboys’ injury report. Still, he managed to suit up for all 18 of Dalas’ game this year, including their loss to the team’s 23-17 loss to 49ers during which he ran for just 31 yards on 12 carries.

However, Elliott was, clearly, hampered by the injury. He averaged just 3.7 yards per carry after Week 4, so despite playing in all 17 games, he wasn’t treated as the same kind of workhorse back that he was in previous seasons.

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It’s also why the Cowboys used Tony Pollard more during the 2021 NFL season than they had in years past. Elliott was still the primary runner — he played 65.9 percent of the Dallas snaps while Pollard played 30.5 percent of them — but Pollard proved to be more effiicent than Elliott as a dynamic playmaking threat.

As such, it’s a bit curious that Pollard didn’t get many touches against the 49ers, especially with Elliott nursing that injury. Elliott was on the field more frequently than his counterpart and saw 13 total touches while Pollard had six on offense.

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That said, the Cowboys seem to trust Elliott more in pass protection, so perhaps Pollard’s absence was related to the Cowboys trailing and wanting Elliott in the game ot protect Jimmy Garoppolo.

Elliott, 26, will look to round back into form during the 2022 NFL season, but first, he’ll have to rehab his partially torn PCL. Recovery from the injury, when mild, can take as little as 10 days, per the Cleveland Clinic. However, if the ligament needs to be surgically repaired, he recovery timeline tends to take six to nine months.

For now, it seems like Elliott will be closer to the front end of that recovery timetable. Either way, it doesn’t seem like he’s in much danger of missing time during the 2022 NFL season, as a nine-month recovery would put him on track to return in mid-September if it comes to that.