Team news: Dallas Cowboys | Page 67

It didn't take long for Dak Prescott and Dez Bryant to find a rhythm in Saturday night's 24-19 preseason win over the Indianapolis Colts.

Prescott targeted the Pro Bowl receiver on his first pass play. First and 10 from Dallas' own five, Prescott found Bryant for an eight-yard strike that was quickly turned into 23 yards after breaking a tackle.

"He has been healthy all offseason, so that chemistry has grown," Prescott said. "He's been a guy that his ears are wide open, wanting to know what I'm thinking, and I want to know what he's thinking. It's just been back and forth of just talking and doing it out there on the field and it's only growing."

Prescott added, "it's the best Dez has been." He also thought Bryant has been the most improved player so far this season. This obviously could be very key this season for both players and fantasy owners, especially with RB Ezekiel Elliott out because of a suspension.

Dalvin Cook picked up 33 yards on three consecutive carries against the Seahawks, showing off his combination of power and elusiveness once he finds a seam. Cook’s production came behind a patchwork offensive line that expects to return two of its starters — Alex Boone and Riley Reiff — for the next preseason game on Aug. 27.

Dalvin Cook has played 36 snaps this preseason. That's about one half of a game. He has touched the ball 17 times (12 carries and 5 receptions). That's exciting bell cow level production for a rookie whose ADP has moved into the 4th round. Cook also has the third-easiest schedule by our PPR RB aFPA tool. It's looking more and more that Cook will line up as the starter in Week 1. The Vikings had a lot of problems running the ball last year, but signed tackles Riley Reiff and Mike Remmers and drafted center Pat Elflein (3rd round) and guard Danny Isidora in an effort to rebuild the offensive line. Cook has had a good spring and his primary competition (Latavius Murray) is still well behind after offseason ankle surgery.

Normally, it's business as usual for veteran receiver Cole Beasley, but one rep last week got him a little extra pumped.

Starting safety Byron Jones gave Beasley a shove off the line. Beasley responded by breaking free and beating Jones to the outside. Dak Prescott put a nice back-shoulder ball over the top of Jones and Beasley allowed his athleticism to do the rest, leaping to make the grab.

"I've been trying to expand my route tree for a long time," Beasley said. "That stuff is only going to help the stuff that I'm good at. Any time we can get stuff like that going and any routes like that, more down the field, more vertical, that's only going to help my game underneath. That stuff is big for just setting up other things that I do."

His increased work on the outside and expanded route tree could also help the Cowboys find more situations to get rookie Ryan Switzer on the field with Beasley.

The 5-8, 180-pound Beasley was targeted a team-high 98 times last season, finishing with a career-high 75 receptions for 833 yards and five touchdowns. The story added Beasley continues to win one-on-one battles in camp.

With Ezekiel Elliott staring at a six-game suspension pending the result of an appeal, Dak Prescott will be asked to do more, but maybe not run more in 2017. If Elliott is out, the Cowboys will rely on their tailbacks Darren McFadden, Rod Smith and Alfred Morris to make up for the absence of last season's leading rusher.

"He's going to run anyway because of his game, his mobility, but I think you're going to lean on the side of picking your times when you do it," offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said of Prescott. "I think if you do it a lot it certainly can be a little bit of a distraction to what you're trying to do. That's why you have runners. But when a quarterback has that element, it's an advantage. So I think the key to quarterbacks running is they know what kind of a run we're trying to get. If they can’t get 3 yards and we want 4 yards, 3 yards is OK, too. Don't take hits. That's my approach anyway."

The story said Prescott running the ball won't become a staple of the Cowboys' offense, even with Elliott scheduled to miss six games. They don't want to risk Prescott to injury even if he is 6-foot-2, 238 pounds. During training camp, Prescott has broken off a few long runs in the zone-read.

Cowboys star running back Ezekiel Elliott is facing a six-game suspension for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy, but he isn't willing to accept that ban without an appeal. On Tuesday, he officially submitted his appeal.

Adam Schefter reported the appeal is expected to be held on Aug. 29. Another report said if Elliott doesn't win his appeal, he could take the case to federal court, like Tom Brady did.

Latavius Murray wants to be on the field in a game uniform, but the running back and the Vikings know it’s more important for him to be fully ready first.

Murray signed with Minnesota during free agency but needed ankle surgery (which he disclosed to the team before signing). The rehab sidelined him for the team’s offseason program and delayed his participation in practices until the final two days of training camp at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

“I’m feeling really good, was able to do a little bit more last week in practice, so I want to keep going on that trend and hopefully feel better each day,” Murray said. “I definitely like where I’m heading."

Related players: Dalvin Cook

The Vikings shifted Murray from the Active/Physically Unable to Perform List on Aug. 7, and he participated in individual drills that day and Aug. 8. He did not play in the Vikings preseason opener last Thursday at Buffalo but said on Tuesday that he is continuing to make progress. While Murray misses time, Cook continues to impress in his quest to win the RB1 job.

Ezekiel Elliott touched the ball on 35 percent of the Cowboys offensive plays last season, but Dak Prescott insists he won’t have more pressure on him without the star running back.

“We’ve got great running backs,” the Cowboys quarterback said in a Tuesday media session, via the team’s Facebook Live stream. “Darren McFadden and Alfred Morris, those guys have had a lot of success in this league for a long time, so it’s just an opportunity for them to come in and get more reps in his time off.”

Prescott admitted teams stacked the box at times against Elliott, giving one-on-ones on the outside. That may change without Elliott in the lineup but Prescott said he still expects the offense to run smoothly.

The Minnesota Vikings weren't shy about giving rookie Dalvin Cook the ball in his preseason debut.

Cook either took a handoff or caught a pass on nine of the 13 offensive plays that the Vikings' starting offense ran against the Buffalo Bills. He finished with five runs for 13 yards and four receptions for 30 yards.

"He got what was there," head coach Mike Zimmer said. "The thing I liked about him was when it got into tight quarters, he lowered his shoulder and tried to fight for the extra couple yards."

Related players: Latavius Murray, Jerrick McKinnon

The story said Cook has put himself into position to win the starting job while Murray continues to rehab from ankle surgery. Both Murray and McKinnon didn't play in the team's preseason opener.

Cowboys' RB Ezekiel Elliott is being suspended 6 games, per source.

Related players: Darren McFadden, Alfred Morris

This is apparently the standard for domestic violence suspensions even though it sounded in recent days like the punishment would be shorter than this. Within three days, Elliott can appeal the suspension and then the league would need to hold a hearing within 10 days after that. It's possible that the suspension could be reduced or that Elliott would be allowed to play while the process plays out, but for now we're going to assume that he misses the first six games of the season, which would put him back in Week 8 since the Cowboys have a Week 6 bye. Darren McFadden served as the primary backup late last year and seems to be the biggest beneficiary from this news. He's likely to be the feature back behind a great offensive line for the first six games of the season. Assuming Elliott plays nine fantasy-relevant games, his projections put him into the 3rd or 4th round. McFadden now looks worthy of a pick in the middle rounds, but his value has an expiration date. It shouldn't be too difficult to draft both Elliott and McFadden, but Elliott owners will need to be on their toes in those middle rounds.

It may come Friday, it could be bumped into next week. Regardless of the timing, the prevailing view in league circles is that Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott will be suspended under the Personal Conduct Policy.

One league source characterized an Elliott suspension as “definite.” The specific duration of the suspension isn’t known, however.

We typically project running backs for 15 games, assuming one missed game due to injury. In the case of Elliott, we're currently projecting him to play 13 games, with the assumption that he'll serve a two game suspension in addition to one potential injury game. He's still worthy of a first round pick, but owners should be sure to draft Darren McFadden as his suspension handcuff.