Ezekiel Elliott has thumbs as quick as his feet.
The Dallas Cowboys rookie, who leads the NFL in rushing, fired off a playful text to former Los Angeles Rams great Eric Dickerson last week that read simply: "I'm getting close."
"You've got a long way to go," Dickerson tapped out in response.
The two were talking about the NFL rookie rushing record that Dickerson set in 1983, when he ran for 1,808 yards, a mark he thinks will last longer than his single-season record of 2,105.
"You only get to be a rookie one time," Dickerson said Monday. "You can't say, 'Aw, I'll get that next year.' If a team is willing to build an offense around a young running back ... I was fortunate that we ran the ball a lot."
Elliott rushed for 134 yards Sunday in a 28-14 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, becoming the first Cowboys rookie to run for at least 100 yards in three consecutive games. That brought his season total to 546 yards, meaning he would need to average 115 a game to eclipse Dickerson's mark.
It doesn't hurt that Elliott is running behind an outstanding offensive line, maybe the best in the NFL, one that paved the way for DeMarco Murray to run for 1,845 yards in 2014. A big test comes Sunday when the Cowboys play at Green Bay against a Packers defense ranked No. 1 against the run, a unit that has given up 42.8 yards rushing a game and one touchdown.
Elliott also benefits from the play of fellow rookie Dak Prescott, who has passed for 1,239 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. Elliott and Prescott are the first rookie tandem in NFL history with at least 1,000 yards passing and 500 yards rushing in the first five games of the season.
"You have to have a line," Dickerson said. "I don't care how great a back is, you have to have an offensive line. Look at what's going on with (Rams running back) Todd Gurley. I don't care how fast, how big, how strong you are, it's not going to work. When you have a great offensive line, it makes it that much easier on a running back to rip off a big run."
Gurley, last season's NFL offensive rookie of the year, ranks 19th in the league with 288 yards rushing and has run for 100 yards only once in his last 13 games. That was eight games ago. Earlier last season, he had four consecutive 100-yard games.
That underscores just how difficult it is to sustain a top-tier performance throughout the season. As Dickerson said, Elliott has a long way to go.
