Church thinks rookie Elliott will ease burden on Cowboys' defense

After the Dallas Cowboys went through a disappointing, injury-plagued season in 2015, safety Barry Church is looking at rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott to help the club return to glory.

Elliot, the fourth overall pick in the 2016 draft, has impressed coaches and teammates throughout offseason workouts, including Church.

"Oh, super excited," Church told SiriusXM NFL Radio about Elliott's arrival. "He’s one of those punishing backs. He’s a three-down back. He can do it all: Catch it out of the backfield, he can run between the tackles. He has enough speed to break the long ones. He’s definitely a three-tool player that can just play on every single down. And it helps out the defense a lot. It takes our play downs by a lot."

Without quarterback Tony Romo and receiver Dez Bryant healthy for most of last season, the Cowboys struggled to establish long possessions, making things even harder on the defense. Now that those two are healthy and Elliott is on the scene, Church hopes his team can get back to the playing style that won the Cowboys a division title in 2014.

"That also happened in 2014 when we had DeMarco Murray," Church said. "He was punishing defenses and we were three-and-out here, three-and-out there and we were fresh in the fourth quarter. That’s how we won all of our games, by getting takeaways in the fourth quarter, but that was because we were fresh."

Murray wasn't re-signed after winning the NFL rushing title in 2014 with 1,845 yards and 13 touchdowns while helping the Cowboys achieve a 12-4 record. Darren McFadden managed a top-five finish in league rushing yards as his replacement, but that wasn't good enough for the front office.

"Hopefully, we can get back to that same formula, where we’re just grounding and pounding people and then we’re just coming in there and cleaning things up," Church said. "So we’ll see what happens, but he has all the talent in the world."