True but a 1000 yard rusher given plenty of touches isn't special anymore when its barely 60 years a game . Zeke maybe a 2000 yard rusher , a freak of nature talent . His combination of power , balance , agility and speed is unmatched in this league right now .
There is no way an average RB is doing what Zeke is doing in Dallas this year. Just like Romo wouldn't be 10-1 replacing Dak from day 1 .
I don't understand how you could be so oblivious to this point.
2015: 7 players rushed over 1,000. McFadden was fourth in rushing in the NFL (14th in yards / carry)
2014: 13 players rushed for over 1,000. Murray was first in rushing in the NFL before falling off the face of the earth in Philly because, surprise surprise, they had no O-Line. In 2016 he's back o a team with an O-Line and his numbers are back. Shocker.
2013: 13 players rushed for over 1,000.
2012: 16 players rushed for over 1,000.
2011: 14 players rushed for over 1,000.
2010: 17 players rushed for over 1,000.
So only once in the last 6 previous seasons do > half the teams have a 1,000 yards rusher and in a pass-happy league, the amount of rushing has dropped making 1,000 yard rushers harder to come by. But yeah, duh, 1,000 yard rushers are super easy to find.
Also, look at the top (top being defined as one of them that got 1,000+ yards) RBs in 2010, how many of them are still top RBs in 2016 or even relatively good? Only two; LeGarette Blount & Lesean McCoy. (Charles & Peterson are active, but are no longer top RBs)
Same exercise in 2013, how many of the top RBs n 2013 (again, "top" being defined as one of the RBs that got 1,000+ yards) are still top RBs in 2016? There are only two; McCoy & Murray. (Charles, Peterson, Matthews, Lacy, Gore, Forte, Morris are still active but no longer top RBs in the league)
Here's the point you keep missing.
Not only is rushing for 1,000+ yards in the NFL really hard, so much so that less & less teams have 1,000 yard rushers, it's
even harder to do it consistently over long periods because RBs have the shortest career lifespans of anyone in sports. Zeke is always one bad hit to the knee away from never being the same. You could say the same for every player, however RBs are the only ones who play such a physically punishing type of game and have to go through it play after play after play. There is huge turnover in the position whereas cornerbacks, there isn't. If you're a top-end cornerback, you could easily have an 8+ year career. How many RBs have 8+ year careers in the NFL? A handful, but the majority of the rest wash out within 5 because the game will destroy their body by the time they're done.
Like last year proved, the O-Line is the reason for the team's success at running the ball moreso than the runner himself. Despite having no QB and having no reason to fear the passing game, the opponents could stack the box to try preventing the run, the Cowboys
still managed to have the fourth best rusher in the NFL.
I love Zeke, but I'm not convinced that he's a generational, HHOF type RB to be perfectly honest. Hell, he's definitely not even the best player from the draft. That's Dak. A top tier RB, though? Probably. Zeke is physical, tough, a real joy to watch, but there are a lot holes created by this O-Line for him and I don't see Zeke creating his own holes often enough.
Also, nobody is saying an average RB would be doing what Zeke is doing atm. That isn't the argument. I fully concede that if had Alfred Morris & McFadden as their RBs instead of Zeke, they would be less efficient on offense. However, if they had those two + Jalen Ramsey on defense, I think they'd be a more efficient team overall while
still being one of the top rushing teams in the league. That defense is going to let them down bigtime against a really good team.