We’ve noticed in recent days a smattering of reports regarding the possibility that running back Ezekiel Elliott is embarking on his final year with the Cowboys.
Of course he is.
Elliott remains on the roster at a fully-guaranteed salary of $12.4 million only because the structure of the deal, negotiated in 2019 during a holdout, resulted in the 2022 salary becoming fully-guaranteed in 2021. If that payment hadn’t been guaranteed a year before 2022, the Cowboys wouldn’t have paid it.
Starting next year, Elliott’s contract enters the non-guaranteed season. Surely, the Cowboys won’t want to pay him another $10 million in 2023. Unless he agrees to re-do his deal, he’ll undoubtedly be gone.
It’s not news. It’s not a surprise. It’s obvious. It’s a function of the market at the position.
Tony Pollard makes less than $1 million this year. Comes next year, the Cowboys likely will be more willing to pay Pollard than Elliott.
Or maybe the Cowboys will simply draft someone else, like they did after they wished DeMarco Murray well after he set a franchise single-season rushing record in 2014 and, following the 2015 season, drafted Elliott.