Jerry Jones has his own dictionary. The Cowboys owner added to it Saturday night in his pregame interview with 105.3 The Fan.
Jones said he is not bothered by Ezekiel Elliott’s holdout, calling it part of the “ongoingness” of the NFL.
“You know that it’s a marathon,” Jones said before the Cowboys-49ers game, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com. “It’s a long season. It’s a long career. And so that you don’t let a week or a month, you don’t let any of that bother you. It goes on all the time.”
Elliott’s holdout has reached its 16th day with no end in sight.
“If [fans] read the newspaper, they’ll see he’s in Cabo and we’re in San Francisco,” Jones said when asked if there was an update on contract negotiations.
The Cowboys have Elliott under contract for $3.85 million in 2019 and $9.09 million in 2020 under his fifth-year option. They then could use the franchise tag on him.
They repeatedly have said they have made the star running back a “solid” offer, but the Cowboys want to pay Elliott somewhere in the range of what the Jets gave Le’Veon Bell, not what the Rams paid Todd Gurley.
Gurley’s average annual salary is $14.375 million; Bell’s is $13.125 million. Elliott reportedly wants $15 million a season.
So the stalemate continues.
Rookie Tony Pollard started for the Cowboys in the exhibition opener. He had four carries for 16 yards on the opening drive.