I agree with Jerry, if we sign Zeke to a new deal, what if he holds out again?

[Sydla]

Sammy Watkins got a 3 YR 48 million dollar deal with 30million guaranteed a couple years back. What exactly has he done? Even with Buffalo to warrant what he got? Zeke has been consistent on the field. You can make a strong argument that he is the best in the NFL at RB. Was Sammy Watkins even a top 15 WR when he signed? How important was he to the Bills' offense compared to Zeke? The truth is that there are overinflated positional salaries in the NFL. It's a passing league but Dallas employs an offense with a strong running focus. They have to either bite the bullet and pay Zeke or roll the dice.

The comparison to other positions and dumb contracts given out by other teams as a justification to do our own dumb contract is bizarre.

 

[TheGoat73]

His stats are bloated by having 43 more carries than the next guy, agreed. What was his fumbles per attempt though?

Haven’t found a stat that shows per rush+pass attempt. Zeke has a lot of receptions.

He had SIX fumbles last year!

 

[pansophy]

Haven’t found a stat that shows per rush+pass attempt. Zeke has a lot of receptions.

He had SIX fumbles last year!

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/E/ElliEz00.htm Yards per touch was 5.3. Not sure where that puts him.

In Zeke’s defense the Cowboys are running him into the ground so he does need to make his money now. He isn’t being set up for a long career.

 

[Buzzbait]

Ultimately why does one year really make a difference unless we weren’t planning on extending him?

Zeke holding out is the part of the business fans don’t like. We just want to see then on the field.

Aren't you the one who is always reminding us that this is a business? You don't know that a "business" has to plan for their expenses and when those expenses come due?
If the Cowboys had a good player hold out for a new contract 2 years ahead of time, and just in time to conflict with several other good players' contract times? C'mon Diehard you're smarter than that.
1 year early is not a big surprise, but 2 years early is ridiculous and you know it.

 

[pansophy]

Haven’t found a stat that shows per rush+pass attempt. Zeke has a lot of receptions.

He had SIX fumbles last year!

Here you go. 2nd in scrimmage yards. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2018/scrimmage.htm

A lot of fumbles indeed

 

[Buzzbait]

Ultimately why does one year really make a difference unless we weren’t planning on extending him?
.

And THAT is a ridiculous argument, to insinuate they weren't going to extend him! Of course they were going to extend him, they already made him a large offer......top two money for RBs! They wouldn't offer that much money to someone they didn't expect to extend.

 

[Diehardblues]

Aren't you the one who is always reminding us that this is a business? You don't know that a "business" has to plan for their expenses and when those expenses come due?
If the Cowboys had a good player hold out for a new contract 2 years ahead of time, and just in time to conflict with several other good players' contract times? C'mon Diehard you're smarter than that.
1 year early is not a big surprise, but 2 years early is ridiculous and you know it.

It’s very unusual. No doubt but so is his talent level and the dependency we have on him because of our QB skill set. And really on both sides of the ball because our dominating rushing offense TOP lends support to our defense as well.

I’m not sure any other player could get away with holding out 2 years early on our roster but Elliott.

The Cowboys are obviously willing to pay him. Just a matter of hashing out how much. This is the business of the NFL.

 

[Established1971]

Lets say we sign Zeke to a new 5 year contract...…...2 or 3 years from now, Barkley gets a new market setting contract for a RB, but Zeke still leads the league in rushing every season.

Is Zeke going to say, "that's not fair, I had more yards rushing than Barkley so I need to make more than him" so Zeke holds out again before his contract is up demanding "renegotiation".

Whats to keep Zeke from doing this?

Serious Question.

what? even if he played 2 years on a new contract and held out again he would be going into his 6th year, say goodbye and good riddance

 

[GMO415]

This narcissis has to be the highest paid....so when Barkley signs his deal, this fool will hold out again

 

[Diehardblues]

And THAT is a ridiculous argument, to insinuate they weren't going to extend him! Of course they were going to extend him, they already made him a large offer......top two money for RBs! They wouldn't offer that much money to someone they didn't expect to extend.

I don’t believe it’s a given they were going to extend him.

He just wants to get paid now. He sees everyone else getting paid . Why not him now? Does anyone really believe he’s not worth it?

If Dak gets his money a year early , why not him 2 years early. If Dak is out there making 30 million , doesn’t Zeke deserve more than 3 million? What if he gets hurt this year?

I totally get where Elliott is coming from. I hate that it potentially hurts the team but again this is the business of the NFL.

 

[pansophy]

Aren't you the one who is always reminding us that this is a business? You don't know that a "business" has to plan for their expenses and when those expenses come due?
If the Cowboys had a good player hold out for a new contract 2 years ahead of time, and just in time to conflict with several other good players' contract times? C'mon Diehard you're smarter than that.
1 year early is not a big surprise, but 2 years early is ridiculous and you know it.

I would only counter the 2-year argument with this — RBs have shorter careers at baseline, last year alone he had a full game and half more carries than the next guy so that could shorten his career further, and he is on a 5 year rookie deal when his life span might be 8 or 9 elite years.

If he gets a new contract now he might get to another good payday down the road. So it makes sense to me. Obviously makes sense to the Jones since it sounds like they have offered him the highest non-outlier contract second only to Gurley.

Zeke should should sign that and imo is getting bad advice to not do so. It also pits Dak and Zeke against one another indirectly. Dak wins without Zeke, maybe we take the 2nd highest contract off the table entirely. Dak can’t win without Zeke then why would we pay him top 5 money or higher if he needs an elite runner to be successful.

Up until now there has been uncertainty about who is needed more so the Jones gave fair offers to each. But each are choosing to maximize their contract, and imo one of them is going to lose out because of it. Right now I think it will be Zeke because even to my critical eye Dak has looked the best I’ve seen him this preseason.

 

[hornitosmonster]

Fingers crossed the Pollard is legit and we can move on from Zeke. Houston needs a running back ..

 

[Runwildboys]

I just dont understand how some are eager to move on from Zeke. Probably the most gifted RB weve had since Emmitt

Oh, he's definitely the most gifted we've had since Emmitt, that doesn't give him the right to break his contract and screw his teammates and fans. Maybe he just wants to be sure he has the money to cover his next lawsuit.

 

[Old'Boyfan]

You could make Zeke the highest paid player in all the NFL & he would still be a problem. Zeke will always be a problem. He has the mentality of a spoiled, pampered teenager. Giving Zeke more money now will not change him for the better. Are Jerry & Stephen willing to put up with that? I hope not.
There's no easy answer to this. Trading Zeke would not be as simple as it sounds. For sure a number of teams would like to have him but they would want to negotiate a new contract prior to a trade. How many teams would be willing to do that AND put up with his behavior AND the possibility of another suspension? AND give the Cowboys a 1st round pick? That whittles it down considerably.
Pull the offer Jerry. Realize that this might not be THE year. This team is young enough & talented enough that the window will be open for a while. Start looking for another RB, be it in next years draft or otherwise.

 

[eromeopolk]

Lets say we sign Zeke to a new 5 year contract...…...2 or 3 years from now, Barkley gets a new market setting contract for a RB, but Zeke still leads the league in rushing every season.

Is Zeke going to say, "that's not fair, I had more yards rushing than Barkley so I need to make more than him" so Zeke holds out again before his contract is up demanding "renegotiation".

Whats to keep Zeke from doing this?

Serious Question.

Well that's a nice problem to have. A RB that leads the league in rushing every year and has +50 catches. The last time that happen for the Cowboys, the won 3 Super Bowls in 4 years.

Guess what Jerry had to make that RB the highest paid rookie RB in 1990, the highest paid NFL RB in 1993, and then give him a contract that made him the highest paid NFL player in 1996. Jerry had to keep that RB until 2003 to hang a banner in the stadium that said All Time Leading Rusher.

I think that was a good problem to have for poor Jerry Jones.

 

[DallasEast]

Salary cap drama.

I remember when the current salary cap/free agency was created by the NFL/NFLPA in the mid 1990's. I foresaw the problems and they pissed me off. Royally. In the 2000's, on the Site-That-Will-Not-Be-Named and later this site, I vented with threads and posts about the inherent nature of the salary cap. The usual response was "It's good for the league by putting every team on a level playing field."

Whatever. Nowadays, some people label players traitors for trying to get what they can. Other people demonize owners for manipulating their cap the way they see fit. One would think everyone should consider the what if now that should have been wondered about way back when.

What if there was NO salary cap and owners could pay players what they wanted and the 'best' players would be multimillionaires?

Hearing and reading current sentiment about players wanting to get paid and owners wanting to pay players what they think is fair keeps me continually float between and .



/rant

 

[Alweezy]

no one here hates Zeke. I cant speak about the TV pundits. They got their ax to grind I suppose. I think most of us commoners here, from the outside lookin in, know how much of a privilege it is to play a kids sport for huge bank. Its hard to wrap our brains around someone ..ie a player, turning down millions on a deal he already signed with 2 years left. so he can be paid MORE MILLIONS. See how that looks? Optics of how his business is being handled is real bad.

The Cowboys are the most valuable sports franchise in the world in terms of revenue and net worth. We're not talking about a kids game with some concession stand money involved. This is a multimillion dollar industry on network television that has set a salary cap on itself to structure salaries in a way beneficial to the league and ownership. If Zeke is the best player on the field, he deserves his share of the revenue. That's not bad optics. that business.

Put it in the Cowboys hands, and they run him 25-30 times a game on a contract year. No one would say that's bad optics either. It goes both ways. I can't argue against a guy knowing his value, doing his homework on how this organization treated the last RB, and deciding to make a business decision.

 

[Alweezy]

Dak and Cooper are where they are supposed to be. It seems to matter to Dak and Cooper that this team has the best shot at a super bowl since the 90’s. Selfish Zeke doesn’t care about his team, teammates or fans. He is the anti-teammate.

Question: What player or coach on this team (not media, or owner) has come out and said Zeke is anti-teammate?

 

[Diehardblues]

And THAT is a ridiculous argument, to insinuate they weren't going to extend him! Of course they were going to extend him, they already made him a large offer......top two money for RBs! They wouldn't offer that much money to someone they didn't expect to extend.

I thought we were taking about when this contract was up?

 

[TheGoat73]

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/E/ElliEz00.htm Yards per touch was 5.3. Not sure where that puts him.

In Zeke’s defense the Cowboys are running him into the ground so he does need to make his money now. He isn’t being set up for a long career.

Here you go. 2nd in scrimmage yards. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2018/scrimmage.htm

A lot of fumbles indeed

Question: What player or coach on this team (not media, or owner) has come out and said Zeke is anti-teammate?

What player would? Players don’t usually get in other player’s business. If you can’t see how he’s being a bad teammate, you’re trying too hard not to see it.