Jerry Jones expects Ezekiel Elliott to miss start of Cowboys’ season

The Ezekiel Elliott contract holdout just went to a whole new level.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Thursday night that he doesn’t expect the Pro Bowl running back to play with the team at the start of the regular season. The Cowboys open the season Sept. 8 at home against the Giants.

“I’m operating as though right now he’s going to miss regular-season games,” Jones said, per USA Today. “My entire expectation for what we’re putting together as a team right now would anticipate, with him holding out and not having any training camp, that he’s going to miss games.

“I just accept that.”

Elliott, 24, has two years and $12.8 million left on his contract, with him set to earn $3.8 million this season if he reports and $9 million next season.

Elliott, his agent Rocky Arceneaux and even Marshall Faulk, who is helping to keep Elliott in shape, have been in a war of words this summer with the Cowboys. Arceneaux said he and Elliott found Jones’ “Zeke who?” quip disrespectful, and Elliott recently reminded everyone in a Maxim interview that even Emmitt Smith didn’t play his whole career with the Cowboys.

“We need Zeke,” Jones said. “We’re a better team with Zeke. But we need to be able to win when we need to without players because of injuries, suspension or in this case, holdout.

“He can’t and won’t miss them all.”

Yet Jones, whose “Zeke who?” quip came after a promising performance by rookie running back Tony Pollard, isn’t going to take the step of reaching out to Elliott directly to talk dollars.

“Let me be real clear about something: I don’t negotiate with players,” Jones said. “I share with players my thoughts about our team and about why I have the position I have and to give them information as they’re assessing their decision. My discussion with players is something nobody, no agent, can have [because of] my perspective as the architect of the team. So I’m trying to get any player to understand why I’m making the decision I am. That’s not negotiating. That’s simply explaining the position. Negotiating is if I step over there and start saying, ‘I’ll give you this for that.’ I don’t do that with players.”




https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost...-elliott-to-miss-start-of-cowboys-season/amp/

Jones should get rid of Zeke .....2 years left on your contract & you want a raise.

The Computer Group said:

Jones should get rid of Zeke .....2 years left on your contract & you want a raise.

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Agreed. What's the point of a contract? Most teams have to eat the contract when the player is a bust, but when a player is a star the team "has" to give him a raise before the contract expires?

Also, at what point do these salaries start to level off (vs. raising every single year)? It seems revenue has to fall (or the networks have to raise the price of commercials on their advertisers) because viewership has fallen and so has attendance (overall). The supply & demand model doesn't seem to be working the way it's supposed to work here.

I don’t blame him at all. It’s a product of the rookie scale. The rookie scale is important to protect teams from avoiding having to pay some unproven rookie Tom Brady money, but teams also have to realize they are going to have to pay guys who become proven NFL stars. In typical corporate mentality the teams want the protection and don’t want to pay when a player proves their value and the protection wasn’t needed.

Elliot’s total base salary the last three seasons is less than $5M, total, which is absurd for one of the league’s most dynamic talents who plays a position that takes an incredible beating and has a relatively short shelf life. The Cowboys have been taking full advantage of having two of the biggest financial steals in the league with Elliot and Prescott and now it’s time to pay the piper. They’ve paid out in base salaries under $6.4M total, over three years for their starting QB and starting RB, who also happens to be one of the best in the league, and the Cowboys continue to cry poor, what a joke.

They play Was, Nyg, and Mia the first 3 weeks. F him bring him in after they start 3-0. Think JJ is on the same page.

CoachCB said:

Agreed. What's the point of a contract? Most teams have to eat the contract when the player is a bust, but when a player is a star the team "has" to give him a raise before the contract expires?

Also, at what point do these salaries start to level off (vs. raising every single year)? It seems revenue has to fall (or the networks have to raise the price of commercials on their advertisers) because viewership has fallen and so has attendance (overall). The supply & demand model doesn't seem to be working the way it's supposed to work here.

Click to expand...

Yep, when a player is a dud, the team still has to pay them and they don't ask for any money back based on poor performance. If Zeke and Dak get huge contracts, they should hand duffle bags full of cash to that offensive line. I'd like to see how they both performed behind a crap offensive line and then ask for the money they are both wanting.

Zeke’s beef should be with the player union for the terrible rookie contracts. 5 years!? They should be 3.

Cowboys arent crying poor lmao.

Its called a Salary Cap.