Problem w/Zeke’s Contract

[WillieBeamen]

Shocking tidbit I heard on The Break last week....Zeke only has three runs of 30+ yards in his career.

Its since 2017


In 2016 alone he had:

the long TD against the Lions on MNF

the long TD against the Bengals

the game winning TD against the Steelers

 

[JBell]

It's alarming that he's lost his home run ability after only a few seasons.

He's a few seasons away from being a full blown plodder at this rate.

 

[Kevinicus]

Its since 2017


In 2016 alone he had:

the long TD against the Lions on MNF

the long TD against the Bengals

the game winning TD against the Steelers

Yep.

5 in 2016
1 in 2017
3 in 2018 (and I think another in the playoffs against Seattle to setup our first TD).

People seem to think Saquon is typical, and other backs should be comparable. He's an extreme outlier in this area. He's a home run hitter, not a grinder. Zeke has to be able to do both.

 

[WillieBeamen]

How can fans really look at Zeke and think hes even close to being a problem?

His o-line has regressed

His offensive coordinator does him no favors by being so predictable

He has a QB that teams dont even fear

i was listening to the Michael Kay show here on Tuesday, and they had Adam Gase on talking about the Cowboys. He mentioned how we have a great back and o-line. Not one mention of Dak

7:10 mark
https://es.pn/2AQQqbL

 

[cowboyec]

the problem is stumblin' over his feet when he has a crease.

 

[Sydla]

How can fans really look at Zeke and think hes even close to being a problem?

His o-line has regressed

His offensive coordinator does him no favors by being so predictable

He has a QB that teams dont even fear

i was listening to the Michael Kay show here on Tuesday, and they had Adam Gase on talking about the Cowboys. He mentioned how we have a great back and o-line. Not one mention of Dak

7:10 mark
https://es.pn/2AQQqbL

Elliott is a good TB.

But he's overpaid.

 

[superonyx]

Actually they are 7th after yesterday yard per game, 11th yards per carry.

We are overpaying for our running game. That's obvious to anyone who isn't a Zeke homer or just can't bring themselves to admit the Cowboys may have made a mistake.

No need to put people in a box to justify someone not agreeing with you.

Zeke at $12.75 per year is a value.

demarcus Lawrence and the defense are unable to stop anyone. Our offense isn’t our problem. We are top 10 in scoring.

 

[Sydla]

No need to put people in a box to justify someone not agreeing with you.

Zeke at $12.75 per year is a value.

demarcus Lawrence and the defense are unable to stop anyone. Our offense isn’t our problem. We are top 10 in scoring.

Zeke at $12.75MM is not a "value". Frankly, any TB making that is probably not a "value" in today's NFL. You see more and more teams build running games without pouring a crap ton of money into one TB.

Our offense is absolutely a problem. Don't be fooled by the first three games against really dreadful teams.

That's not to say the defense isn't worse, they suck. But this offense is clearly not lighting the world on fire once they started to see competent defenses.

 

[superonyx]

Zeke at $12.75MM is not a "value". Frankly, any TB making that is probably not a "value" in today's NFL. You see more and more teams build running games without pouring a crap ton of money into one TB.

Our offense is absolutely a problem. Don't be fooled by the first three games against really dreadful teams.

That's not to say the defense isn't worse, they suck. But this offense is clearly not lighting the world on fire once they started to see competent defenses.

We will agree to disagree. Any player who has as much of an impact on the game as Zeke (or any RB with similar impact) is worth the $12m. In my opinion a guy who is on pace to score 14 tds, have well over 1k yards and is a 3 down player is worth this piece of the cap. Now I can point to some guys who are making almost double and havent even reached 10 tackles on the season. Thats not a value.

How this whole debate goes is like this.....the folks who don't believe in the value of the RB position will line up and take shots at Zeke for eternity. The guys who see the value of the RB will be ok with the salary. Nothing has happened either way to change either sides opinion. Nor will it.

 

[Zordon]

Its since 2017


In 2016 alone he had:

the long TD against the Lions on MNF

the long TD against the Bengals

the game winning TD against the Steelers

Yeah I knew that sounded wrong.

 

[aria]

When you're running into a brick wall on every play do you expect him to carry 5 guys for yards?

I obviously didn't like the fumble and that would be on the only issue I see with him on the field.

Barkley never got that excuse last year, why does Zeke get it? If you need holes that you can drive a semi through to produce yards than we should have never paid him and stuck with Pollard and a FA. You should only pay elite players elite money if they are true difference makers, obviously Zeke isn’t a true difference maker without an All Pro O line hence the waste of money.

 

[mattjames2010]

He had a shot for a long TD run yesterday and allowed himself to get tripped up.

 

[mattjames2010]

I'll say it again, it was an organizational mistake to take him with the 4th pick and we compounded it by paying him the most money ever for a TB.

The Jones' simply do not know how to build a franchise. If they swallowed their pride and hired a real GM with a real plan on how to build the franchise, they'd be in much better shape. But with no oversight, no threat of being fired, Jerry and Stephen act on whims and big shiny objects in their face instead of building an organizational plan and sticking to it.

I thought they might be doing that in 2015 when they continued their focus on investing in the OL and said they would not overpay for a TB because their research showed you likely wouldn't get the full return on that investment. And then a year later, they use the 4th pick on a TB and a few years after that, hand him a whopping contract.

This franchise is going nowhere, unfortunately, with these two running things. I kept hoping that maybe, just maybe Jerry's lack of time on this earth and maybe Stephen being less impulsive would steer this franchise in the right direction, but I now know I am wrong. Nothing will change.

Having Ramsey and Jones right now I think would be one of the better duos in the league. We can talk about Ramsey's personality, but it's not as though Zeke has been a saint.

 

[aria]

Yep.

5 in 2016
1 in 2017
3 in 2018 (and I think another in the playoffs against Seattle to setup our first TD).

People seem to think Saquon is typical, and other backs should be comparable. He's an extreme outlier in this area. He's a home run hitter, not a grinder. Zeke has to be able to do both.

But he doesn’t. He rarely has long runs and his “grinding” consisted of 1.9 ypc against a rush defense ranked in the bottom half of the league. There’s nothing elite about that and I’m quite sure Pollard would have done equally as well, if not better, and probably wouldn’t have fumbled the ball as Zeke is prone to do.

 

[Sydla]

We will agree to disagree. Any player who has as much of an impact on the game as Zeke (or any RB with similar impact) is worth the $12m. In my opinion a guy who is on pace to score 14 tds, have well over 1k yards and is a 3 down player is worth this piece of the cap. Now I can point to some guys who are making almost double and havent even reached 10 tackles on the season. Thats not a value.

How this whole debate goes is like this.....the folks who don't believe in the value of the RB position will line up and take shots at Zeke for eternity. The guys who see the value of the RB will be ok with the salary. Nothing has happened either way to change either sides opinion. Nor will it.

What impact is he having? They are 3-3.

And note, this isn't personally about Zeke. I think he's a fine TB. It wouldn't matter if we had Gurley or Kamara or Barkley. I think it's a waste of resources in a capped league to spend that much on a TB. You don't see the return most likely and TBs are likely the ones to decline the fastest. In fact, we are probably seeing some of that now as Elliott doesn't look nearly as explosive as he did earlier in his career.

And what Lawrence is making or what other players are making is irrelevant to what Elliott is making. Clearly Lawrence isn't earning his money but that doesn't mean that Zeke's contract is fair.

 

[mattjames2010]

How can fans really look at Zeke and think hes even close to being a problem?

His o-line has regressed

His offensive coordinator does him no favors by being so predictable

He has a QB that teams dont even fear

i was listening to the Michael Kay show here on Tuesday, and they had Adam Gase on talking about the Cowboys. He mentioned how we have a great back and o-line. Not one mention of Dak

7:10 mark
https://es.pn/2AQQqbL

Barkley has nothing around him, still found ways to bust off long runs. The claim here isn't that Zeke is bad, the argument is he's an RB that has lost his burst.

 

[WillieBeamen]

Barkley has nothing around him, still found ways to bust off long runs. The claim here isn't that Zeke is bad, the argument is he's an RB that has lost his burst.

I didnt say nothing about him not losing burst

And barkley is better


Like i said, he is one of the last players that should be blamed for what is going on here

 

[superonyx]

What impact is he having? They are 3-3.

And note, this isn't personally about Zeke. I think he's a fine TB. It wouldn't matter if we had Gurley or Kamara or Barkley. I think it's a waste of resources in a capped league to spend that much on a TB. You don't see the return most likely and TBs are likely the ones to decline the fastest. In fact, we are probably seeing some of that now as Elliott doesn't look nearly as explosive as he did earlier in his career.

And what Lawrence is making or what other players are making is irrelevant to what Elliott is making. Clearly Lawrence isn't earning his money but that doesn't mean that Zeke's contract is fair.

When the conversation is about percentage of salary cap for a player or position of course a DE taking up $20M of that is relevant. Just like Jaylon Smiths contract is relevant.
Every position is relevant to the conversation. The salary of a player and the percentage of the cap they take up needs to weighed by the impact that have on the game.

If you want to pretend that Zeke hasnt had an impact on the game then this conversation just went down to stupidsville and i'm not interested in hanging out with you in that town.

 

[Sydla]

I didnt say nothing about him not losing burst

And barkley is better


Like i said, he is one of the last players that should be blamed for what is going on here

I wouldn't "blame" him for what's happening but what's happening is also proving that signing him to a massive deal might not have been a wise investment.

 

[Cydios]

Zeke actually played well yesterday (2nd half) BUT his he has no breakaway speed. His weight has visibly increased. I can't tell if it's muscle or fat or both. Either way he lost a step. Dez lost a step after his contract but that happened right after his foot injury. Zeke can be fixed assuming he wants to be.