In simply a few years, Dallas Cowboys’ operating again Tony Pollard has gone from being a scrappy backup to the staff’s most harmful weapon out of the backfield. The 2019 fourth-round draft choose grew to become Dallas’ major rusher in most individuals’s eyes in the course of the ‘22 campaign. The Cowboys would like to keep Pollard around long term, but for now, they’ve slapped the franchise tag on the Pro Bowler, which can value them simply over $10 million subsequent season.
Jerry Jones and his entrance workplace could have till July 15 to succeed in a long-term cope with Pollard, or he’ll play on the tag in ‘23. While Pollard didn’t get as many carries as Ezekiel Elliot final yr, he did eclipse him in speeding yards going for 1,007 on the season. Elliott rushed for a career-low 876 yards and solely missed two video games.
What about Zeke?
With a long-term deal seemingly within the works for Pollard, questions on Elliott’s future in Big D turn out to be extra critical by the day. At a price ticket of $16 million towards the wage cap, It can be practically not possible for Dallas to maintain Zeke and ink Pollard to an enormous cash deal. Adding to Elliott’s obvious decline, this probably means his days in Frisco are numbered.
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“I want to be here,” Elliott stated after the divisional spherical loss to the San Francisco 49ers. “I don’t have a crystal ball; I can’t tell you the future. But I definitely want to be here.”
The solely method to preserve each with out inflicting an excessive amount of injury on the cap can be for Zeke to just accept a pay reduce — which he’s reportedly keen to do. Jones might all the time draft one other again, however we all know he may be loyal to a fault. Elliott is without doubt one of the gamers Jones appears to like, so it is going to be onerous speaking him into chopping the previous first-round choice.
This wouldn’t be a difficulty for many groups, and primarily based on Elliott’s fall from grace, he’d already be within the free-agent pool. Luckily for him, Jerry Jones doesn’t function like different house owners. Sometimes he holds on too lengthy with sure gamers, and Zeke is one in all them. Now that the Cowboys can transfer off Elliott with out a lot penalty, they should push ahead. He had a number of nice years, however it’s over.
Running backs don’t normally bounce again after they fall off. Elliott shall be 28 in July and would possibly by no means rush for 1,000 yards once more. If he’s keen to take much less cash, Jones might take him up on that supply, however then there’ll probably be an obligation for Mike McCarthy to play him as a lot as attainable. All that does is maintain Pollard again or stunt the expansion of any rusher they draft/signal to fill out the backfield. Jerry Jones has some powerful choices to make very quickly.