Cowboys tag Tony Pollard — what about Ezekiel Elliott?

In simply a few years, Dallas Cowboys’ operating again Tony Pollard has gone from being a scrappy backup to the crew’s most harmful weapon out of the backfield. The 2019 fourth-round draft decide turned Dallas’ major rusher in most individuals’s eyes throughout the ‘22 marketing campaign. The Cowboys wish to preserve Pollard round long run, however for now, they’ve slapped the franchise tag on the Professional Bowler, which is able to price them simply over $10 million subsequent season.

Jerry Jones and his entrance workplace may have till July 15 to succeed in a long-term cope with Pollard, or he’ll play on the tag in ‘23. Whereas Pollard didn’t get as many carries as Ezekiel Elliot final yr, he did eclipse him in dashing 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 Massive D turn into extra critical by the day. At a price ticket of $16 million in opposition to the wage cap, It might be almost not possible for Dallas to maintain Zeke and ink Pollard to an enormous cash deal. Including to Elliott’s obvious decline, this possible means his days in Frisco are numbered.

“I wish to be right here,” Elliott mentioned after the divisional spherical loss to the San Francisco 49ers. “I don’t have a crystal ball; I can’t let you know the longer term. However I undoubtedly wish to be right here.”

The one option to preserve each with out inflicting an excessive amount of harm on the cap can be for Zeke to simply accept a pay minimize — which he’s reportedly keen to do. Jones might all the time draft one other again, however we all know he will be loyal to a fault. Elliott is likely one of the gamers Jones appears to like, so it is going to be onerous speaking him into reducing 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. Fortunately for him, Jerry Jones doesn’t function like different homeowners. Typically he holds on too lengthy with sure gamers, and Zeke is one among them. Now that the Cowboys can transfer off Elliott with out a lot penalty, they should push ahead. He had just a few nice years, nevertheless it’s over.

Operating backs don’t often bounce again after they fall off. Elliott will probably be 28 in July and may 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 provide, however then there’ll possible 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.