Cowboys RB Tony Pollard (thigh) is inactive for tonight's game vs. the Titans. It's unclear if he'll be able to return for next week's regular-season finale. Pollard's absence makes RB Ezekiel Elliott a safer bet for touches tonight. He'll be backed up by Malik Davis and Qadree Ollison, who was elevated from the practice squad this afternoon.

ESPN's Adam Schefter confirms that Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott (knee) is not expected to play vs. the Bears today. He's listed as doubtful after missing practice all week. RB Tony Pollard is positioned for a workhorse role against Chicago's 25th-ranked RB defense. RBs Qadree Ollison and Malik Davis were both elevated from the practice squad on Saturday.

Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott (knee) is listed as doubtful for Sunday’s game vs. the Bears. He didn’t practice all week and looks likely to sit through Dallas’ upcoming Week 9 bye. Zeke’s absence should land RB Tony Pollard in a workhorse role. It’ll be RBs Qadree Ollison and Malik Davis behind him.

BYU RB Tyler Allgeier went to the Falcons in Round 5 of the NFL Draft. Allgeier arrived at BYU as a non-scholarship player who spent time at both RB and LB. He eventually earned a scholarship, though, and topped 1,100 rushing yards each of his final 2 seasons. Allgeier reached workhorse status as a senior, delivering a 276-1,601-23 rushing line along with 28-199-0 receiving. He’s not especially speedy or athletic but brings a decent all-around package at 5’11 and 224 pounds. Although he dropped to Round 5, this is as strong a landing spot as Allgeier could have hoped for. He joins a Falcons RB room alongside Cordarrelle Patterson, Mike Davis, Damien Williams and Qadree Ollison. There’s a chance that Allgeier carves out a real role in 2022.

Falcons RB Qadree Ollison missed practice this week with a non-COVID illness and is not expected to play vs. the Jaguars on Sunday, according to insider Orlando Ledbetter. Ollison doesn't show up on the official injury report because he's currently on the practice squad. He ended up leading the Cordarrelle Patterson-less Atlanta backfield last week, tallying 9 carries to Mike Davis' 3 and Wayne Gallman's 1. Patterson is trending toward returning for Sunday's game and is the only viable fantasy play in this backfield.

The Falcons on Thursday announced that they had signed RB Wayne Gallman and released RB Qadree Ollison. That doesn’t mean much for fantasy football values, unless you had big dreams for your late-round Ollison shares. Gallman played well for the Giants last season, but they then let him walk so they could pounce on Devontae Booker in free agency. Gallman, of course, failed to stick with San Francisco this summer. He now, at least, should find more opportunity in 1 of the league’s worst RB depth charts.

The Falcons released RB D'Onta Foreman. Atlanta is down to Mike Davis, Qadree Ollison and Cordarrelle Patterson at RB. We'll see if they add to the backfield over the next few days. But Davis is looking safer and safer as the team's clear lead back.

Scott Bair of the Falcons official site believes Mike Davis will see “200 plus carries.” “They'll use several [RBs] in the rushing attack,” Blair says, “though I think Davis ends up the workhorse.” Our current RB projections have Davis down for 205 rush attempts, so it's a reasonable take. We’ll keep an eye on Atlanta adding another RB as teams make cuts to get rosters down to 53 by 4pm Monday. For now, Qadree Ollison looks like the team’s #2 rusher.

The Falcons released RB Javian Hawkins. Hawkins has had some fantasy buzz despite going 183 pounds and going undrafted this spring. We'll see where he lands, but he remains a fantasy long shot. Mike Davis and Qadree Ollison are Atlanta's top 2 RBs for now.

Qadree Ollison has run as the #2 RB in Falcons camp behind Mike Davis, per beat writer Tori McElhaney of The Athletic. A 2019 5th-rounder, Ollison goes 6’1, 228 pounds and posted 212-1,121-11 as a freshman at Pittsburgh (2015). There’s just not much flash or explosiveness to his game. Plus, the Falcons likely remain in the market for backfield insurance. That leaves Ollison as just a last-round flier in deep formats.

Back before his team elected not to draft any RBs, new Falcons HC Arthur Smith said he plans a committee approach in the backfield. “We’re not going to have Derrick Henry here,” Smith told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in April. “So, it’s not like I think we’re going to have Derrick Henry. The reality is that we’ll get multiple backs in here, and we’ll have the way we trust our schemes and the way we teach the details of it, and we’ll commit to it." Mike Davis stands as the clear leader in a group who's next most accomplished rusher is Cordarrelle Patterson. But Patterson will factor in. Atlanta signed Javian Hawkins after the draft. We'll see about Qadree Ollison. And the Falcons could still add pieces. Davis makes for a solid target in current best-ball drafting. Just beware of projecting him too many touches simply because we can't see exactly where else they would go yet.

Has any RB's fantasy outlook improved more than that of Mike Davis through draft weekend? As of this writing (late in Round 6), the Falcons have spent all of their NFL Draft picks and drafted 0 RBs. "It just didn't fall our way," GM Terry Fontenot said of their RB considerations throughout the draft, according to ESPN's Michael Rothstein. That leaves 30-year-old Cordarrelle Patterson as the next most accomplished NFL rusher (167 career carries) behind Davis on the roster, and Atlanta does list Patterson at RB. Qadree Ollison and Tony Brooks-James join them. Fontenot and HC Arthur Smith added that they'll look at undrafted free agents and consider trades, free agents and post-June 1 cuts. So we'll see if the Falcons can add someone better than Davis. He has cleared a big hurdle through draft weekend, though.

The Falcons have reached a deal with free-agent RB Todd Gurley, less than a day after the Rams released him. Gurley showed us last season that he's no longer built for the workhorse role he shouldered for 3 full seasons with L.A. But he's still likely to lead the Atlanta backfield for 2020. We'll see whether the Falcons add anything else significant to a backfield that returns Ito Smith and Qadree Ollison (with Brian Hill a restricted free agent) after dumping Devonta Freeman. But Atlanta is about as good a landing spot as owners could have hoped for Gurley's fantasy outlook. He looks solid in the Round 4-5 range in current fantasy football drafting.