The New England Patriots are expected to sign former Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. The two-time Pro Bowler played the past seven seasons with the Cowboys, but in 2022 Elliott had his fewest yards from scrimmage (968) in a season by far.
He lands with a Patriots team that was in need of a power running back to compliment Rhamondre Stevenson. The impact on the Patriots' futures odds was minimal. They are +6000 to win the Super Bowl, +4000 to win the AFC and +800 to win the AFC East, well behind the Buffalo Bills (+120), New YorkJets (+250) and Miami Dolphins (+290) at FanDuel.
Action Network NFL Senior Analyst, Chris Raybon, and Director of Predictive Analytics, Sean Koerner, see the impact of this move factoring into fantasy football more than futures.
Raybon: Zeke will likely slide into the Damien Harris role from last season (Harris averaged 9.6 attempts per game). Rhamondre Stevenson will likely split carrie's with Elliott and see the majority of the passing game work.
Still, this knocks Stevenson down to mid/high RB2 status more than his current low-end RB1 rank. Zeke will be a RB3 with the most value in standard and the least in full PPR.
Koerner: Elliott’s value is pretty much unchanged from where I had already been projecting him, which is as a backup running back with injury upside.
This signing is much more newsworthy for Rhamondre Stevenson, who I already highlighted could be affected by this signing in my initial tiers. Stevenson moves down to Tier 4 now that Elliott is headed to New England.
I would also highlight that this signing helps Tony Pollard’s stock in Dallas, now that the door for Elliott’s return to the Cowboys is definitely closed.
