Elliott’s job safe no matter the critics
DALLAS — Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was asked this week about blocking out critics and he described it as trying “to stay away from the rat poison.”
As a follow up question with reporters, the Houston native, who the Cowboys face Sunday, went into further detail.
“You got to ask (Alabama) coach (Nick) Saban. He knows a little bit about rat poison, too,” Hurts said. “It’s all external factors. (It’s) no good for us as what we’re trying to do as a team.”
For the majority of the Cowboys season, this “rat poison” has surrounded running back Ezekiel Elliott. He was supposed to carry the offense when quarterback Dak Prescott went down with a seasonending ankle injury in Week 5.
It hasn’t occurred. The circumstances surrounding this reside with a lack of continuity with the offensive line and defenses not respecting the quarterback play of Andy Dalton so they focus on Elliott. Trailing in games, particularly early in the season, hampered Elliott’s play, with the Cowboys needing to pass more. A nagging calf injury forced him to miss last week’s game against the 49ers. He’s battled through a hamstring injury as well.
Elliott is one of the Cowboys’ most durable players, having missed just one game in his five-year career due to health issues.
Still the noise, or rat poison, continues to get thrown at him.
As the Cowboys enter the final two weeks of their disappointing sea
son, the noise has increased to trade, release or bench Elliott for backup Tony Pollard.
Elliott is one of the highest paid players at his position, having signed a six-year contract extension worth $90 million with $50.05 million in guarantees. The holdout before the 2019 season allowed him the security he affords that upsets some Cowboys fans and media members.
“I don’t really pay much attention to it,” Elliott said.
“I don’t really know what to say to it. Tony is a great back though. Tony is a great back. As you saw (last) weekend he’s special, can do some great things and I mean shoot, he’s a good back.”
The man people want to replace Elliott is Pollard. As the new People’s Champ, Pollard earned his first career start finishing with 69 yards on 12 carries and two touchdowns. He also caught six passes for 63 yards. Pollard had
rushed for just 29 yards against the 49ers before a 40-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run clinched the victory.
If Elliott is unable to play vs. the Eagles this weekend, Pollard will start again. Whether Pollard performed well enough to push Elliott out remains uncertain.
Elliott’s contract, however, make his departure difficult. If the Cowboys release Elliott this offseason they would take a
$24.5 million cap hit. With a salary cap expected to be reduced from its current state of $198.5 million, it doesn’t make good business sense. Also, with Elliott being on the roster on March 22, it guaranteed his 2021 base salary of $9.6 million and signing bonuses totaling $4.1 million.
If Elliott is on the roster on the fifth day of the NFL’S league year in March 2021, his 2022 base salary of $12.4 million becomes guaranteed. Elliott will also pick up $4.1 million in signing bonuses.
Based on these provisions the earliest the Cowboys can say bye-bye to their two-time rushing champion is 2023 where the cap hit is manageable at $6.7 million with $8.3 million in savings.
Trading Elliott is problematic, too, because you need to find a team willing to take on this contract for a player coming off a down season. Elliott has career lows in carries (211), yards (832), touchdowns (5) and average (3.9 yards per carry). He’s lost a careerhigh five fumbles and dropped a career-high seven passes.
Over the cap, a website devoted to analyzing NFL salaries, ranked Elliott’s deal the seventh worst in the league.
The Cowboys could always try to renegotiate the deal but that would only extend it by moving money further down the line, when in reality you want out of the deal quicker.
So Elliott’s status, regardless of how tenuous people want it to be, is safe, unless the Cowboys want to take the high cap hits, find a trade partner or get him to renegotiate his deal. So the rat poison will continue until something changes.
“I mean at the end of the day, those aren’t the people signing my checks,” Elliott said. “Those aren’t the cats that are making the final decision. So I think there’s a reason they’re not the ones making those decisions. So I mean I don’t think it really matters. It doesn’t really hold much with me what people outside the building are saying. All that matters to us is the people inside this building.”