Jerry Jones on Ezekiel Elliott: He’s our best football player. He’s our best one.

To say that the Dallas Cowboys have been frustrating at times this season would be quite the understatement. You don’t get to a 2-7 record the week before Thanksgiving without things that are upsetting.

We all know that the Cowboys have been disappointing this year, and a lot of it has been due to some bad luck by way of injury. Of course, there are other factors limiting the team like bad roster decisions, and to the credit of the organization they seem to have been quick to adjust when things just aren’t working out (see Everson Griffen, Daryl Worley, or Dontari Poe as examples).

At the moment, the production of two players on the team has hardly been pushing people off of the couch to go buy their jerseys, and they both just so happen to have gotten long-term contracts from the club before last season. Speaking as respectfully as possible, the first two picks of the 2016 draft for the team, Ezekiel Elliott and Jaylon Smith, have been disappointing this year.

Jerry Jones said Ezekiel Elliott is the best player on the Dallas Cowboys in his mind

You could argue these two players a number of different ways with people, but the debate that has encircled football conversations for the last few years has been about how much running backs matter, so to speak. There is a lot of data to support that this position is the least difficult to refill by way of the draft, which is a point the Cowboys seemingly disagree with since they paid Zeke big money a year ago.

Elliott’s play this season without Dak Prescott has hardly added any fuel to the idea that he is the propelling force of the offense, the straw that stirs the drink as Stephen Jones once said. There are running backs in the NFL who are seemingly better (Dalvin Cook, Alvin Kamara, Nick Chubb, just to name a few) and even Zeke’s backup in Tony Pollard has looked more explosive this season.

All of those seem to be points that Jerry Jones might disagree with. Asked about Zeke during his Friday appearance on 105.3 The Fan, Jerry praised Zeke and called him the best player on the team. Literally the best one.

What are we expecting Jerry to say, really? This is classic from him as he is always one to boost his players, but there should be a bit of a reading of the room from him here. Cowboys fans all over the world aren’t exactly of the mindset that Elliott has been performing well this season, so all a statement like this does is generate negative attention for Zeke. Jerry and Stephen have acted similarly and watched the same effect with the aforementioned Jaylon Smith.

If you are asking for this writer’s opinion, there is no player on the Cowboys better than Zack Martin. You could also put DeMarcus Lawrence higher at his own position group these days than Zeke, and when Dak Prescott is healthy he is, without a doubt, the best that the team has to offer. Just look at how bad they have been without him.

Ezekiel Elliott was dealing with a hamstring injury the last time that the Cowboys played. When he takes the field this Sunday there will now be, not only the expectations of playing in the same game as what looks like it will eventually be the league’s leading rusher in Dalvin Cook, but now Zeke has to carry the words of Jerry Jones and try to prove him right.

Whether or not he will be able to will be interesting to watch.