Tony Pollard blossomed in his fourth season with the Dallas Cowboys.

Pollard posted career highs in multiple stats in the regular season, including in yards from scrimmage (1,378). He also emerged as a reliable target for Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott in the passing game, hauling in 39 receptions for 371 receiving yards.

Pollard’s unique style of play added another dimension to Dallas’ offense this past season, which garnered the approval of Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith.

“Tony Pollard has shown he has not only a unique ability to get small, but to get big when he needs to, and he has found a way and mastered it so far,” Smith said during a recent appearance on Sportsradio 96.7 FM’s ‘The Musers' show. “He’s been able to get the big play here when he needs to. For some reason, that has happened for Tony Pollard. I don’t know if it is his vision, I don’t know what it is. I haven’t studied him that closely.

“But he’s gonna have a big run in every game if you give him a chance to get that gear that he has. He has the innate ability to find the soft spot and turn a soft spot into a bigger spot.”

Pollard’s 2022 campaign came to an end in the second quarter of the Cowboys’ NFC divisional round matchup against the San Francisco 49ers. He suffered a high ankle sprain injury and a fractured fibula on a play where he was brought down to the ground via a hip-drop tackle from 49ers safety Jimmie Ward.

The NFL Competition Committee is reportedly expected to review the “mechanics” of the hip-drop tackle in the offseason. Smith hopes to see the NFL ban this tackle.

“But Pollard sustained the worst one this year, and that was in the playoff game, and so I hope the NFL eliminates that tackle,” Smith said. “You see it way too much. That is about as bad, if not worse, than the horse-collar. … You are supposed to wrap up. Go back to some of the fundamentals and some of the fundamental basics.”

Pollard will hit free agency for the first time in his career in March.