Ezekiel Elliott didn’t say a lot that was new in an interview with Maxim, but it’s more than the Cowboys running back has said publicly in months.
Elliott has not made himself available to local beat writers since his football camp May 19.
In a story published on Maxim.com on Monday, Keith Gordon writes he interviewed Elliott “last month.” Gordon never mentions Elliott’s contract holdout, which began July 26, but Elliott does talk generally about the value of the running back position and his desire to play for the Cowboys “as long as I can.”
“I love playing for the Dallas Cowboys. I love the organization, my teammates,” Elliott told Gordon. “I do want to be a Cowboy for the rest of my life, and hopefully that’s a possibility. But even Emmitt Smith, the greatest running back ever, ended up going to play a couple of years for another organization. So it’s just the nature of the game, but I want to be a Dallas Cowboy for as long as I can.”
Elliott is seeking a contract that will make him the highest-paid running back in the game. The Cowboys’ offer would make him the second-highest paid behind Todd Gurley, who signed a four-year, $57.5 million contract extension in July 2018.
Thus, the sides remain at an impasse with the season opener only 13 days away.
“Until the very recent deal with Todd Gurley, I think there was an undervalue of the running back,” Elliott said. “But with guys like Gurley getting drafted so high, then me, and now guys like Saquon [Barkley] getting drafted in the first round. I think we’ve done a great job of bringing back the value of the position, showing the importance of the running back.”
Elliott has led the league in rushing in two of his three seasons. In 2017, when he served a six-game suspension, Elliott still led the league in average yards per game.