Elliott still running with starters; Prescott displays competitive fire
Star running back Ezekiel Elliott took the practice field with the Dallas Cowboys on Monday for the first time since the NFL suspended him for six games for violating the personal conduct policy.
And for the most part, it was business as usual for Elliott. He worked with the starters and the Cowboys moved forward with preparations for Saturday’s preseason home opener against the Indianapolis Colts.
Elliott might not play in keeping with the plan from a year ago when he only played in one preseason game. Coach Jason Garrett said starting running backs don’t get a lot of snaps in the preseason.
As far the suspension is concerned, Garrett said: “We addressed it head on with our team. We explained the situation, now we move forward. We focus on the task at hand.”
Other sightings from Monday’s practice:
1. Linebacker Jaylon Smith ended practice on a high note with a sack of quarterback Kellen Moore on the final play, providing him a first chance to do his favorite “swipe” celebration from his dominant days in college at Notre Dame.
2. Quarterback Dak Prescott threw an awful interception to Nolan Carroll on a bad throw intended for Dez Bryant. The competitive Prescott followed with a touchdown to Bryant over Carroll and cornerback Byron Jones on the very next play. The same thing happened earlier in practice. A pick by Carroll was followed a completion to Noah Brown on the same route against Carroll.
3. Left tackle Tyron Smith returned to practice and left no doubt that his back was fine by tossing defensive tackle Maliek Collins like a rag doll on back-to-back plays in team drills.
4. Tight end Jason Witten had the catch of the day with a one-handed, left-handed stab of pass from Prescott in 7-on-7 drills with linebacker Anthony Hitchens draped on his back in close coverage.
5. The see-saw play of the day featured tight end James Hanna being stripped by linebacker Mark Nzeocha after a catch who was then stripped by Brown during a fumble return.
Quote of the day
“There’s a little bit of a philosophy that we have with our defensive line: you never really want to use a high resource for a nose tackle. You want the nose tackle to be the discarded under tackle. Does that make sense? So you don’t want in the second round say, ‘OK we’re going to draft a nose, he’s a helluva nose.’ We don’t really want to do that. We want to draft that guy who can rush. Oh, he’s not good enough, let’s make him the nose and now you have this athletic guy.”
— Cowboys coach Jason Garrett
Injury report
DT Cedric Thornton (hamstring): Day-to-day
LB Sean Lee (hamstring): Day-to-day
CB Chidobe Awuzie (ankle): Day-to-day
CB Marquez White (hamstring): Day-to-day
DE Tyrone Crawford (ankle): Undetermined
CB Anthony Brown (hamstring): Day-to-day
CB Jourdan Lewis (hamstring): Day-to-day
OL Joe Looney (toe): Day-to-day
WR Andy Jones (quad): Day-to-day
TE Connor Hamlett (fractured ankle): indefinite
This story was originally published August 14, 2017 at 9:57 PM with the headline "Elliott still running with starters; Prescott displays competitive fire."