What if Jerry had the courage to stonewall Zeke in his holdout in the summer of 2019? (Like the Steelers wisely did with LaVeon Bell) What if Zeke would have been told they weren’t going to negotiate with him two years early? What if indeed...
In the summer of 2016, the Dallas Cowboys signed Ezekiel Elliott, the 4th pick of the 2016 NFL draft, to a 4 year contract with a 5th year extension option. After 3 very productive seasons (one partially interrupted by a suspension) the Cowboys announced in April 2019 that they would be exercising Zeke’s 5th year option. In fact they announced it before he started his 4th year.
Later in the summer of 2019, Zeke famously headed to Cabo to try and twist Jerry’s arm early in a training camp holdout. Not going into his last year of a contract. After three years. We all know Jerry caved like a cheap suit and made Zeke the highest paid RB in league history.
Fast forward to now. If Jerry hadn’t caved, and we had stayed the course, Zeke’s rookie deal 5th year would be expiring in a few months. Or he could have turned into LaVeon Bell and left. And It’s safe to say had we waited, these things might have happened:
- Zeke would either be receiving a significantly different contract for his future from Dallas, or perhaps even from somewhere besides Dallas.
- Without the albatross of the Zeke deal, our roster flexibility would be much rosier.
Sure, hindsight is 20/20.
But paying RBs a king’s ransom in today’s NFL is just foolish. We should have known that before 2019. It’s why the only two other teams that made the same mistake by signing big RB deals with LaVeon Bell (the jets) and Todd Gurley (Rams) both got out of those fat contracts early and cut their losses.
And since Zeke signed his big deal, his performance has fallen off the table. Starting last year when we still had T-Fred and the rest or our once great line. Want evidence?
- Since 2019, Zeke is tied for 25th in the league with just five 20-yard runs in 25 games.
- Compare that to Nick Chubb and Derrick Henry, who both have eighteen 20 yard runs during that same 25 game stretch.
- Since 2018, he has dropped from 4.7 ypc to 4.5 in 2019 to 3.7 this year.
So here’s the real question Dallas radio sports man Bob Sturm recently posed:
“If Zeke is no longer breaking big plays — and there are very few cases of players actually getting more explosive with age and wear and tear — should the Cowboys seriously consider turning down his March 2021 activator and playing with $24 million in dead money (split into two seasons) to get out of another doubling-down of his contract in 2022?”
Count me in on that plan. Maybe we could learn from our mistake and move on as the jets and Rams did.
