Cowboys head coach makes strong statement on Tony Pollard's return from injury

Ladies and gentleman, the Dallas Cowboys RB1 is officially back. Tony Pollard, who suffered a scary injury when he broke his left fibula during the playoffs last season, sounds like he's ready for the action. Equally as important, his head coach, Mike McCarthy sounds incredibly optimistic about the explosive running back, who is slated for the largest workload of his career.

As Michael Gehlken of The Dallas Morning News revealed, Pollard went through some light work during padded practices recently and felt "fast" and "explosive." And for the first time since his injury, Gehlken wrote that Pollard felt "assured he was himself again."

McCarthy echoed that statement, and per The Dallas Morning News, the Cowboys coach said he "definitely" believes the 26-year-old is back.

“He’s put his foot in the ground on a number of runs,” Mike McCarthy said Thursday. “I definitely think he’s back.”

As exciting as it is for Cowboys fans to hear the positive news on Pollard, it's worth noting that the expectation is that he'll spend the team's first preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on the sidelines as a spectator, which isn't a reason to be alarmed.

Realistically, it'd be surprising if Pollard sees any action during the preseason unless it's just to get back into the flow of the game with a few touches prior to the regular season. He seems to know as much as well, at least about a likely non-existent preseason role, as Pollard spoke about the importance of the preseason for running backs like Rico Dowdle, Malik Davis and Deuce Vaughn.

“It’s regular season for them,” Pollard said. “They’ve got to treat it like it’s regular season or even a playoff game. It’s do or die.”

Fans should expect Pollard to hit the ground running once the regular season gets underway. There's a legitimate case to be made that he could be among the top running backs in the entire NFL in production this season. His upside as both a runner and pass-catcher sets him up to be in a position to be one of the league's most productive running backs, at the very least.