Ezekiel Elliott has not had the type of season that we have been accustomed to seeing from him for the Dallas Cowboys.

Elliott has struggled to get going running the football, has had problems with fumbling, and has had issues catching passes. Dallas' makeshift offensive line featuring an undrafted free agent starting at right tackle has not helped Elliott at all, but the point still stands.

The 2016 fourth overall selection and multiple time Pro-Bowler has looked anything but one of the elite players in the NFL — something that he was widely considered to be for much of his early career.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones still believes Zeke is the best player on the team.

If there is one thing that we know about Jerry Jones, it is that we know how much he loves to hype up his own players — especially the players that he gives pay days to. That was no different on Friday morning when the Cowboys owner proclaimed Ezekiel Elliott as the best player on the Dallas Cowboys.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on @1053thefan lauded RB Ezekiel Elliott. "He's our best football player. He's our best one. Having said that, we've just got to have more chances to expose him to the defense, and we're going to do that. …In my mind, he's our best player."

— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) November 20, 2020

Jones told 105.3 The Fan that "(Zeke)'s our best football player. He's our best one."

That is an interesting statement to make at this point in time. The Cowboys sit with a 2-7 record, and Elliott has not rushed for 100 yards in a single game this season. In fact, Zeke has only broken the 50-yard mark once in the past four games.

Elliott has not been the game-changing player in 2020 that we have seen him capable of being in previous seasons. The former Ohio State star has less 20-yard runs than Nick Chubb this season — and Chubb has only played five games due to injury! Even Tony Pollard has more 20+ yard runs since 2019 than Elliott — behind the same offensive line.

Furthermore, Bob Sturm recently wrote on Zeke and his struggles for The Athletic. One of the many things that Sturm pointed out in the article is that Elliott now ranks 25th in the league in 20-yard runs, well behind the best backs in football.

And those big rushes when Elliott used to lead the NFL? Well, now he is tied for 25th in the league with just five 20-yard runs in 25 games. Nick Chubb and Derrick Henry both have 18 during that stretch. That is what elite now looks like. Looking at our prior group of six, Elliott ranks well behind Henry, Cook and Kamara, very similarly to McCaffrey and above just Mixon.

When Tony Pollard has roughly the same number of explosive plays with less than 30 percent of the workload, we have to say that, definitively, the answer to question one is “no.”

Besides the fact that Elliott has not been an elite — or even very good — player in 2020, Jerry Jones' statement is still crazy. For one, Zack Martin, Tyron Smith, Dak Prescott, and DeMarcus Lawrence are all better players than number 21. Granted, both Smith and Prescott are currently on injured reserve.

Zack Martin is one of the most elite players in football at his guard position. The Notre Dame product has been named an All-Pro every single season since being drafted in 2014, and he has been a major force for the Cowboys. Lawrence, meanwhile, does not put up gaudy sack numbers, but he is one of the more consistent edge defenders in football.

This was not written to say that Ezekiel Elliott is a bad football player; rather, it was written to say it is asinine to call him the best player on the Dallas Cowboys in the year 2020. Here's hoping that he ends the season on a strong note, though.

Featured image via Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports