Take a deep breathe. Unplug from Twitter for at least a couple hours.
This Zeke Elliott holdout will end with a week to spare before the regular season. I will not participate in this reporting that is racing back and forth between the Joneses and Elliott’s camp. This is utter silliness that has taken over social media and talk radio over the past few days.
I do love that former SMU great Eric Dickerson is being used as the mouthpiece for the Elliott camp, though. Eric’s last name was even used in a front page headline in my local newspaper Wednesday. Dickerson apparently has the same agent as Zeke, so he delivered the “news” that the Cowboys running back was prepared to actually sit out regular season games. By the end of the day Tuesday, it was reported Elliott was willing to sit out the entire season.
This is absolute nonsense. There’s no scenario where Elliott is willing to let his 2019 salary become his 2020 salary, which is what would happen if he refused to show up this season. I admire Elliott’s commitment to this holdout because I actually think it will work. He won’t have to pretend he’s willing to go the Le’Veon Bell route much longer. What I have been saying for weeks is actually being discussed, though.
My longtime pal Jason Whitlock of Fox TV fame mentioned Wednesday that Elliott was actually in a contract dispute with Dak Prescott. His colleagues on the show tried to shout him down, but Whitlock was absolutely onto something. This has become a battle about whether Prescott could survive without Elliott. These two are extremely close, so it’s not like they are waging this battle in a purposeful manner. But it’s exactly what’s happening. Prescott’s agent Todd France knows his client has been one of the winningest quarterbacks in the NFL over the past three years, and that he completely has the Cowboys over a barrel.
Elliott’s agent, Rocky Arcenaux, understands the Cowboys have built their entire offense around the former No. 4 overall pick. He knows Jerry Jones’ attempt to point to how the running back position has been devalued in recent years is laughable based on how the Cowboys have built their team.
There have been some attempts from the Cowboys to talk about how rookie running back Tony Pollard has been a breakout star in camp, but that’s simply posturing. Even the newly minted Hall of Famer Gil Brandt got in the swing of things Wednesday when he tweeted, “Can’t stop thinking of how impressive Tony Pollard looked while I was in Oxnard for 2 days. Running style reminds me of Lenny Moore. I know the Cowboys want to sign Zeke, but they have great insurance in Pollard. Either way, he’ll be involved this year.”
I called out my longtime friend Brandt for this tweet. Then he lit me up via Twitter by comparing me to Skip Bayless. It happens.
It is not lost on the Cowboys that the players headed into the final seasons of their contracts, Prescott and Amari Cooper, have played it cool. If they have to enter into a “prove it” season, I think both players will be ready to roll. What Elliott realizes is neither of those players can flourish without his presence. And it’s why he still has the upper hand. Jerry is absolutely right about how running backs are viewed across the NFL. He just happens to be the one guy who’s bucked that movement.
The rhetoric will continue over the next few weeks, but remember who has the hammer. It’s the man who’s spending training camp in Cabo.
