FRISCO, Texas _ The Dallas Cowboys know star running back Ezekiel Elliott is eligible to play against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Beyond that is anybody's guess in his ongoing legal fight with the NFL.
But his teammates are happy to see him in the fold for the time being.
"It's great to have him back," quarterback Dak Prescott said. "Any chance we get with him in the backfield we're going to take it. It's an exciting week. We'll just take it one week at a time and that's kind of been the focus and I guess you can say the mindset of this team. If he's playing, we're obviously happy to have him and we're going to take it one week at a time."
Added right guard Zack Martin: "It's great to have him. We don't know what's going to happen, but as long as he's here, we're happy about that. He's a huge asset to our team."
Elliott has been a focal point of the offense. He ranks sixth in the league with 393 rushing yards on 105 carries, and has two rushing touchdowns.
The Cowboys' rushing attack appeared to hit its stride in the fourth quarter against the Green Bay Packers earlier this month. Elliott had 31 yards on 16 carries in the first three quarters before going off for 85 yards on 13 carries in the fourth quarter.
"We got it going there a little bit," Martin said. "Listen, we broke it down in the off week and kind of tried to figure out some things we can fix and I think we focus on that moving forward. We're going to keep doing what we're doing. We've just got to execute as a whole group."
For as much positive as Elliott and the offense have shown, though, the suspension is still a looming possibility.
As Prescott said, "It's going to be unfortunate when the suspension comes, or however that plays out, but he's definitely getting better each and every week," Prescott said. "The benefit of having him out there is big."
How much longer remains the question.
Elliott was granted a temporary restraining order by a New York judge on Tuesday evening, forcing the league to remove him from the reserve/suspended list.
The NFL wants to enforce its six-game suspension against Elliott for violating the league's personal conduct policy, stemming from a July 2016 domestic violence allegation against Elliott, as soon as possible. The hearing for an injunction is set to be heard on or before Oct. 30.
But the Cowboys are taking it as a weekly approach until told otherwise. This is a team that is used to dealing with distractions.
"There's a lot of attention around us and this team," Martin said. "I think we do a really good job of handling that."
Said coach Jason Garrett: "For us it's really been status quo. Control what we can control and that's been our approach all along. We think Zeke's done an excellent job of focusing on what he needs to do. We certainly try to do that as a football team. So nothing's really changed from our perspective."
