Cowboys Didn’t Offer Pay Cut To Ezekiel Elliott; Team Still Open To New Deal

The Cowboys have made a number of high-profile additions so far in free agency, but the 2023 offseason has also included the team’s release of Ezekiel Elliott. The former rushing champion was long expected to be a cap casualty, but the chances of a re-worked contract keeping him in Dallas have fluctuated recently.

Elliott admitted earlier this year that he was willing to accept a pay cut to continue his Cowboys career. That came as little surprise, given the $16.7MM he was scheduled to count against the cap in 2023, and the lack of guaranteed money remaining on his contract. Dallas already has one notable cap figure at the running back position with Tony Pollard having been franchise tagged.

Days after Elliott was released, it was reported that a Cowboys reunion was unlikely. As the former top-five pick faces the prospect of free agency for the first time, however, no new, more modest contract offer has emerged yet from Dallas. Executive vice president Stephen Jones recently elaborated on the reason why that is the case.

“When you’ve got players and we’ve had them over the years, whether it’s Emmitt Smith, whether it’s a DeMarcus Ware these type of players you’ve got such respect for everything that they’ve done for your organization,” he said, via Clarence Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Sometimes the best thing is to let them get a feel for what the market is. The last thing we want to do is do anything that would be insulting to a great player like Zeke.”

Elliott, 27, is a member of a deep free agent class at the position, one which has not landed much in the way of lucrative deals on the open market. Considering his decline in production, including career-worst numbers in 2022, it comes as little surprise that the Ohio State alum isn’t facing a plethora of suitors. Elliott reportedly has a three-team wish list of destinations (Eagles, Bengals and Jets), but it very much remains to be seen if his interest in those squads will be reciprocated.

While Dallas has yet to submit a new offer to Elliott, they still could down the road. At the league meetings earlier this week, head coach Mike McCarthy confirmed that the door “definitely” remains open to Elliott being brought back at a reduced rate (h/t NFL.com’s Kevin Patra). The Cowboys currently sit at $13.3MM in cap space, so a reunion with Elliott could be feasible if the cost were to be low enough.

Changes in Elliott’s market could of course steer him more definitively towards, or away from, the Cowboys in the near future. For now, though, it remains clear that Dallas is content to let the rest of the league dictate the value on his next contract as he eyes a likely change in role for the next phase of his career.