Dallas Cowboys: Holding out wouldn’t be smart for Ezekiel Elliott

Although two years away from free agency, Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott wants a new deal. Here’s why holding out wouldn’t help his case.

The Dallas Cowboys‘ Ezekiel Elliott has arguably been the best running back in the entire NFL since he entered it from Ohio State in 2016. The fourth-year running back has hardly ever missed a meaningful game due to injury, none in fact, while missing eight in total due to suspension and rest in playoff locked scenarios.

Like every professional athlete though, Elliott is looking to get paid. Although surprising, as we hypothesized on last week that he wouldn’t pull a Melvin Gordon, it appears as though the running back is getting set to do just that.

According to a report from Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com, Elliott has privately said that he’s considering a training-camp holdout. That may be Zeke’s next move, but it surely wouldn’t be his best move or a smart one for that matter. Here are a few reasons why.

When it comes to any professional athlete, they usually get paid for a combination of what they have done and a projection on what they will do in the future. While he has more than checked the boxes of the what he has done category, what he will do in the future is obviously yet to be determined.

What Elliott doesn’t want to do is make his teammates and this Dallas Cowboys organization believe that he will go about all of his future business in this manner. While every player spews the rhetoric and cliches like “this is a business” or “he has to do what he has to do to take care of his family”, they do indeed feel some types of negative feelings when they feel as though a teammate is thinking more of himself than the team.

If you need an example, look no further than the narrative that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ players painted about Le’Veon Bell on last season, as he held out on playing under the NFL’s Franchise Tag for a second consecutive season. If Elliott wants to get his money, while also maintaining the respect and chemistry he has built with his teammates, then he probably wouldn’t want to hold out two full years before he is even eligible to hit free agency. It would definitely come off as a bit selfish.

The second reason is a bit more literal and obvious. The last thing you would want to do while looking to get paid by your current team is not playing.

Not only could they have a chance to subtly forget about how good you are for and with the team, but on the flip side, you wouldn’t be there to constantly remind them of why they should be looking to pay you. This leads right into the next reason.

The Dallas Cowboys were perhaps reading the tea leaves a bit in this past offseason’s NFL Draft. In this draft, they took Memphis WR/RB Tony Pollard with the 26th pick of the fourth round and Mike Weber with the fourth pick of the seventh round.

While Weber is definitely more the ground and pound type of back, Pollard is a pure offensive weapon, a much bigger, identically explosive, and similarly productive version of Tavon Austin in college. While neither may be capable now of handling the load, duties, and production of Ezekiel Elliott alone, together they could be quite the tandem, who could be capable of matching Elliott’s production.

This isn’t the 90’s and Ezekiel Elliott isn’t Emmitt Smith just yet. He doesn’t quite have the Superbowl winning cache and subsequent leverage that Smith had during his 1993 holdout either after the Cowboys lost their first two games. While he may be just as important to this team as Smith was to that one, it may not work out the same for him. The aforementioned are the reasons why.