The New York Giants are gearing up to play the Dallas Cowboys while the latter will almost certainly be without starting running back Ezekiel Elliott for the upcoming NFC East matchup.
Nonetheless, this did not stop Giants head coach Pat Shurmur from heaping praise upon Elliott's teammate Tony Pollard, who will likely start in Elliott's place come Sunday afternoon.
Per Josh Alper in NBC Sports' ProFootballTalk:
“He’s had an impact as a rookie,” Shurmur said at Monday’s press conference. “We actually liked him during the draft. We had him on our board in a prominent position. But he’s done a good job. He’s fast. He has really good instincts. He has good collision balance. He can catch the ball. He’s got what you’re looking for in a runner. It appears from what I’ve seen on tape and from what they’re saying that they’re really fond of what he’s done so far.”
The Cowboys originally selected Pollard in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft out of Memphis.
“It's hard not to get excited about a player with good size/speed and the type of per-touch production he put together at Memphis during his three-year stay,” reads his 2019 NFL Draft profile, via NFL.com. “However, finding Pollard's NFL fit could be easier said than done as he's not a natural runner and is behind in ball skills and route-running as a receiver. He has enough talent to handle the packaged/gadget plays, but with kick-return value diminishing league-wide, he will need additional fundamentals training at one position to be more than a shiny toy that is rarely out of the box.”
Pollard will seemingly remain the team's starter in the backfield until the aforementioned Elliott ends his contract holdout.
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