Ezekiel Elliott is entering his seventh season with the Cowboys. An eighth is not guaranteed.
That’s because the running back has no guaranteed money remaining after this season. It seems likely the Cowboys won’t pay him $10.9 million in base salary and take a $16.72 million cap charge for Elliott in 2023.
So, this could be his last season in Dallas.
Elliott needs a big year personally after falling out of the conversation as one of the league’s best backs the past two seasons. He averaged 4.1 yards per carry and 61.9 yards per game combined in 2020-21.
The Cowboys need him to have a big season to accomplish what they want to accomplish this season.
Elliott is healthy now after playing through a partially torn posterior cruciate ligament last season, so the Cowboys expect to see the running back who made the Pro Bowl three of his first four seasons.
“Nothing ever changes for my expectations of Zeke, of who he is, how he leads this team, how he approaches the game,” Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said Wednesday, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com. “He comes in like a pro each and every day and does that, so I expect his best. When you do that and do it with the intentfulness he does, he’s going to get better. When Zeke’s healthy, I don’t think there’s a better back.”