FRISCO, TX — The first domino officially fell on the Dallas Cowboys free agency table, as the club applied the franchise tag to Pro Bowl running back Tony Pollard. That move, while widely expected, puts the spotlight on two-time NFL rushing champion Ezekiel Elliott, who has a considerably high salary cap for next season.
Unless he and the Cowboys come to an agreement on some sort of pay cut, or the team executes a restructuring in their deal (a team doesn’t need player permission to restructure).
Elliott is slated to have $16.8 million against the Cowboys’ salary cap in 2023, a number that can turn into $7.3 million in savings with a restructuring, according to OverTheCap.com.
The point is that the organization has options if it really wants to keep Elliott in tandem with Pollard, giving the two a chance to extend each other’s careers while continuing to complement each other in a way that makes them arguably the best running back duo in the league. ; And that’s precisely what owner and general manager Jerry Jones has in mind.
“I think if you continue the way we used both of them last year, in everything we’ve talked about, I haven’t seen that we wouldn’t have both of them doing the best things that they do,” Jones said at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. . “We have to remember that Zeke was limited, he wasn’t so limited that he worried us, but he was limited last year.”
There’s also something to be said for Elliott’s leadership in the locker room, as he accepted and helped greatly in Pollard’s development toward his eventual Pro Bowl season.
Elliott, 27, finished the 2022 season with 968 yards from scrimmage with 12 touchdowns, the touchdown tally equals his 2021 and just two short of his second Pro Bowl season in 2019, and this went to despite missing two games with a sprained knee suffered against the Detroit Lions in Week 7 – a game he finished and even jumped a defender after sustaining the injury.
So when discussing Elliott’s status with the team, the self-aware Jones doesn’t feel like Zeke is declining as a player, rather it’s the reality that Pollard has emerged as a fellow running back leading the Cowboys to Split the reps between the two of you for maximum impact.
“I know I have a reputation for being reluctant to look at great players as they go into the later years of their careers, but I don’t need a feeling of nostalgia to turn on a tape and see the difference it makes. [Elliott] scored last year in games through the end of the year,” Jones said.
“He made plays, he made runs that, if we hadn’t made them, things might have been more negative than they turned out. If I could replicate the feeling I had before Tony Pollard got hurt [en la Ronda Divisional de la NFC]and the feeling I got with those good weeks of practice behind him and ready to go to the playoffs, he did it right now.
“That same feeling – I wouldn’t try to improve on that right now.”
And, with that thought process still in place regarding Elliott, the only thing left to do is for the Cowboys to figure out the best and most financially acceptable way to keep the former All-Pro and three-time All-Star. Pro Bowl in the building.
They’ve finally found the right recipe at running back and aren’t interested in trading him.
