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After returning to the Cowboys in free agency earlier this week, Ezekiel Elliott said he thinks he can be the No. 1 running back he was for most of his initial tenure in Dallas.

Skip Bayless disagrees.

“I used to love Zeke in those first three years [of his career],” Bayless said on the latest episode of his podcast, “The Skip Bayless Show.”

“But right now, Ezekiel Elliott is more washed than dishes on Thanksgiving night.”

To Bayless’ point, Elliott in recent seasons has hardly resembled the running back who burst into superstardom after the Cowboys picked him in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft. Elliott led the NFL in rushing in his rookie season and did so again two years later in 2018.

But Elliott’s yards per game — a category in which he also led the league during his first three professional seasons — has declined every year he has played in the NFL, as Bayless pointed out. Elliott went from averaging 108.7 yards per game his rookie year to just 37.8 yards per game last season, when he was primarily a backup in Bill Belichick’s final year with the New England Patriots.

However, the opportunity is there if Elliott is able to pull off an unlikely late-career renaissance. The Cowboys let Tony Pollard, last season’s starter and Elliott’s former backup, leave for the Tennessee Titans in free agency. After owner Jerry Jones implied to reporters that the Cowboys would take a running back in the 2024 NFL Draft, Dallas ultimately did not do so.

That is partially why Bayless regards the return of Elliott as an attempt by Jones to “flim-flam us [Cowboys fans], deflect blame, divert our attention, ‘sleight-of-hand’ us.”

Jones and the Cowboys’ front office have received criticism — including plenty from Bayless on FS1’s “Undisputed” and on social media over the past several weeks — for not being aggressive in free agency to build around star quarterback Dak Prescott as he enters his final year under contract with no extension imminent. Bayless doubled down on that criticism on his podcast, making clear his gripe with Jones was not personal but strictly from a fan’s perspective.

“You know the story of the Roman Emperor Nero, how he fiddled while Rome burned in the great fire?” Bayless said. “Jerry’s fiddling around while his Rome burns, while his Cowboys go up in smoke. I really like Jerry as a guy. I loved all the time I spent around him. But as a lifelong, diehard fan, Jerry Jones is my worst nightmare.”