News: LandryHat: Ezekiel Elliott Rumor Too Good to Be True?

[TheMarathonContinues]

They still had legs and Gurley got one last season. Zeke will get one last season somewhere.

Zeke has the same legs they had…..

 

[conner01]

Loyalty could be paying a player to be an assistant coach since there is no cap on that. But if the goal is to get to and win a SB being loyal to players who no longer match performance to cap dollars is detrimental.

Exactly

 

[Beaker42]

Really, this is all just pure speculation unless something happens before the draft ......... if we nothing has happened by then and we draft a RB fairly high then it's probably safe to assume EE is gone June 1.

 

[Hypotenoose]

The best thing for the team is what they are going to do. They are going to cut him. The team gets better immediately by getting a better back in the draft and gaining some money to use elsewhere like receiver.

This feels so obvious. Retaining Zeke is a net loss for the team.

 

[RonnieT24]

Correct. That is basically what I was saying. So we are on the same page but latinmind said "You literally save 16,000,000 dollars to keep Elliot in 2023 in terms of impacting the cap" which is not true.

I think the thought process is that if the Cowboys and Zeke redo his contract they could do say a 3 year deal for 12 million fully guaranteed then they can reduce his cap hit this year to 3-5 million and have it hover in that area the next three seasons. You do that and you get that "cheap veteran" that you would need anyway, you keep the league's best short yardage and goal line back, you keep the league's best blocking back, you keep a team leader and you don't have to teach any new back your play book. People can poo poo Zeke's value all they want. Dude is a good, tough, smart football player. You can never have enough of those.

 

[charron]

I think the thought process is that if the Cowboys and Zeke redo his contract they could do say a 3 year deal for 12 million fully guaranteed then they can reduce his cap hit this year to 3-5 million and have it hover in that area the next three seasons. You do that and you get that "cheap veteran" that you would need anyway, you keep the league's best short yardage and goal line back, you keep the league's best blocking back, you keep a team leader and you don't have to teach any new back your play book. People can poo poo Zeke's value all they want. Dude is a good, tough, smart football player. You can never have enough of those.

I'd have to see the deal and how it affects the money already paid him that is still on the books. But that is all speculation if he would even take such a deal, and then i'm still not sure how it would lessen the 5.8 that was paid him already but on the books for this year, but maybe that gets spread out even more?

 

[Praxit]

..I feel Zeke will take the paycut to stay. Behind a descent OL. Zeke is better than average RB.

Probably has 2-3 yrs left in tank.

 

[RonnieT24]

I'd have to see the deal and how it affects the money already paid him that is still on the books. But that is all speculation if he would even take such a deal, and then i'm still not sure how it would lessen the 5.8 that was paid him already but on the books for this year, but maybe that gets spread out even more?

The contract currently runs to 2026 and the bonus money pro-rates to 2025. They would probably have to add voidable years to push some of the bonus money into the future so they could write a check for most of that money on the deal up front then spread the cap cost out over say the next 4 years. Making the base salary like 1 million and having it escalate from there. I'm no cap expert but I think that's what they've done in the past. It gets the immediate number way down and pushes the hit into later years but spreads it out further.

 

[fairviewfarmer]

This situation reminds me of the Last Days of Dez.

Many fans thought Dez was still something special when Cowboys released him. Many people still think Zeke is at least an average starter, or would be at least a premium role player.

Don't be surprised, folks, if Zeke never plays another down for anyone, despite his desire to continue. Just sayin.

I could see him as a mid season injury replacement for some team that has lost their starting RB for the season and desperately needs RB help. But otherwise, yeah, I think Zeke is done.

 

[charron]

The contract currently runs to 2026 and the bonus money pro-rates to 2025. They would probably have to add voidable years to push some of the bonus money into the future so they could write a check for most of that money on the deal up front then spread the cap cost out over say the next 4 years. Making the base salary like 1 million and having it escalate from there. I'm no cap expert but I think that's what they've done in the past. It gets the immediate number way down and pushes the hit into later years but spreads it out further.

Maybe that's right. Adding voided years may spread out the money already paid. If so then i'm very cool with that as long as the base salary comes way down too. I don't hate zekle but i hate the contract he's under.

 

[bigE79]

it's totally different to me, ... Dez situation was marred with whispers and allegations of cut-throat, backstabbing,.finger pointing ....locker room cancer ..

. that's not coming from the Zeke camp at all... it's a total mutual liking among teammates

Dez called out dak,so did bease,so did cooper..that's why they were let go...all that being released because of money talk was bs.

 

[DuncanIso]

Maybe that's right. Adding voided years may spread out the money already paid. If so then i'm very cool with that as long as the base salary comes way down too. I don't hate zekle but i hate the contract he's under.

Jerry got paid on the rookie deal.

Zeke gets paid now.

 

[DuncanIso]

I could see him as a mid season injury replacement for some team that has lost their starting RB for the season and desperately needs RB help. But otherwise, yeah, I think Zeke is done.

but it’s ok to pay Pollard with that jacked up leg? 8/

 

[DuncanIso]

Dez called out dak,so did bease,so did cooper..that's why they were let go...all that being released because of money talk was bs.

Dez broke his leg.

Broken legs robs WR and RB speed.

Never the same.

 

[bigE79]

Dez broke his leg.

Broken legs robs WR and RB speed.

Never the same.

Dez didn't break his leg,he tore his Achilles,but that was with the saints I believe,he never broke his leg with us,but he did have ankle surgery with us...he was cut from the cowboys because he said dak couldn't read defense's

 

[CowboyRoy]

Because of the dead money genius. Lol now his blocking is overrated too. Lol nate is talking bout you and most likely he'd hate you too.

Yes his blocking is overrated, as is his short yardage abilities. Just like you wrong about Zeke for everything else the last 4 years.

Zeke needs to go.

 

[CowboyRoy]

Dez didn't break his leg,he tore his Achilles,but that was with the saints I believe,he never broke his leg with us,but he did have ankle surgery with us...he was cut from the cowboys because he said dak couldn't read defense's

He was cut because he was an overpaid has been. Ran poor routes and was never really open. Romo just used to throw it up to him so he could go get it even though he was covered.

 

[RonnieT24]

Maybe that's right. Adding voided years may spread out the money already paid. If so then i'm very cool with that as long as the base salary comes way down too. I don't hate zekle but i hate the contract he's under.

The contract never made sense if they weren't going to lean on him to the same degree they had been leading up to them signing it. You don't pay $15 million a year to a 12-15 carry a game back. I always come back to the fact Zeke has never come into a huddle and said "Naw don't give me the ball..." Nor has any other running back in history. The Cowboys started scaling back his workload once they saw Pollard could do some thangs in the relief role which was smart football-wise but not so smart financially since they were now paying top dollar for a role player. At this point Zeke's body is not likely to let him play much above a role player except maybe 2 or 3 turn back the clock games per season. And at his age and tread wear level he's very likely to get hurt again the more they use him. They gotta fix the financial situation or part ways. Those are the only two choices at this point. We fans will just have to wait and see.

 

[RonnieT24]

Dez didn't break his leg,he tore his Achilles,but that was with the saints I believe,he never broke his leg with us,but he did have ankle surgery with us...he was cut from the cowboys because he said dak couldn't read defense's

Actually Dez did miss time with that Lis-franc? fracture in his foot. I think it happened in 2016 and kind of lingered into 2017. The achilles did in fact happen with the Saints.. but the broken ankle happened during his rookie season if I'm not mistaken.. and I don't think he lost any explosiveness off of that.

 

[quickccc]

I think the thought process is that if the Cowboys and Zeke redo his contract they could do say a 3 year deal for 12 million fully guaranteed then they can reduce his cap hit this year to 3-5 million and have it hover in that area the next three seasons. You do that and you get that "cheap veteran" that you would need anyway, you keep the league's best short yardage and goal line back, you keep the league's best blocking back, you keep a team leader and you don't have to teach any new back your play book. People can poo poo Zeke's value all they want. Dude is a good, tough, smart football player. You can never have enough of those.

But you're still limited to a lumberer. If Pollard were to get injured and out, ..we'd have a backup whose so slow and methodical that he cannot create splash plays.. adds no game day speed
to our run game or pass game.

at least Kareem Hunt can come in and provide his version of splash plays behind starter Nick Chubb, ...