8 Fantasy Football Winners From the 2016 NFL Draft

Ezekiel Elliott, RB, Dallas Cowboys

There's a big difference between fantasy and real football.

Last week, I let it be known that the Cowboys made a mistake in drafting Ezekiel Elliott with the fourth-overall selection. But it wasn't because I or any projection model thinks he's bad. It's because the running back position isn't a big deal in real football.

For fantasy purposes, Ezekiel Elliott is probably a first-round selection.

In fantasy, there was no better spot for a running back to land than in Dallas, and the best running back prospect landed there. The offensive line has consistently graded out as one of the -- if not the -- best in football over the last couple of seasons, and with a stud passer in Tony Romo, the match for Zeke is out-of-control good.

We obviously remember DeMarco Murray's huge 2014 season, but what often goes unnoticed -- and I mentioned this in the Elliott article linked above -- is that Dallas' running game was nearly just as efficient last season as it was in 2015. On a per-rush basis, the Cowboys' 0.02 schedule-adjusted Rushing Net Expected Points (NEP) per rush was ninth-best in the league last season, and it was barely down from the 0.03 mark in 2014, which also ranked ninth.

Traditional statistics say the same thing: Dallas' yards per carry average was identical (4.6) during Murray's big season as it was last year with Joseph Randle and Darren McFadden.

McFadden -- who had been the worst running back in the NFL prior to last year -- ended up being the back to own for fantasy purposes. His Success Rate, which measures the percentage of positive runs (in terms of NEP) made by a running back, was 41.42%, which was at least six percentage points higher than his previous three seasons in the league (32.41%, 30.70%, 35.06%, respectively).

DMC started just 10 games, but only 7 backs had more top-24 (RB1 or RB2 in 12-team leagues) weekly running back performances in PPR leagues than he had last year.

We can say McFadden became a much better runner, but you can't eliminate his situation from that.

The Cowboys can run the ball.

Despite signing Alfred Morris this offseason, Elliott should be in store for a large share of the team's backfield work. With Romo returning from injury, Zeke has a very legitimate shot at being a top-three running back in fantasy football this season. And that's not even a hot take.