FRISCO, Texas _ All signs point to Ezekiel Elliott playing in Saturday's "dress rehearsal" game.
Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said the team is "leaning" toward playing Elliott against the Oakland Raiders at AT&T Stadium.
Garrett said the plan would be to give Elliott a similar number of snaps as he had in last year's dress rehearsal game against Seattle. In that contest, Elliott took 14 snaps. He finished with 48 rushing yards on seven carries.
Elliott, 22, is facing a six-game suspension to start the season for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy stemming from domestic violence allegations made against him in July 2016.
The NFL conducted a 13-month investigation and determined there were three instances that Elliott used physical abuse against his ex-girlfriend. The Columbus, Ohio city prosecutor's office declined to pursue criminal charges because of inconsistent information from the victim.
Asked how Elliott would stay fresh with such a lengthy delay, Garrett said: "Yeah, I think the biggest thing is just having the mindset of preparing him for Week One of the season. That's the approach we've taken.
"He's gotten a number of more reps in training camp than he did last year."
Elliott was limited last training camp with a hamstring injury. He made his professional debut in that Seattle contest and went on to be the NFL's rushing champ with 1,631 yards in the regular season.
