Todd ArcherESPN Staff Writer3:35pm ET4 minutes read
Tannenbaum: Tony Pollard is by far a better player than Zeke
Mike Tannenbaum says Ezekiel Elliott’s best days on the football field are behind him after rumors surfaced that the Cowboys were preparing for his release.
FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys released Ezekiel Elliott and made the running back a free agent, the team announced Wednesday.
Elliott was scheduled to count $16.7 million towards the salary cap with a non-guaranteed base salary of $10.9 million. Elliott will be reported as a cut after June 1, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter, meaning the club will save almost $11 million from the 2023 cap, but he’ll be just over $6 million count towards the 2024 cap. The Cowboys won’t get the cap credit until June 1st.
At the recent NFL scouting combine, team owner and general manager Jerry Jones remained open to the possibility of keeping Elliott and Tony Pollard, who received the $10.091 million franchise tag, but that always seemed unlikely. Elliott would have had to take a significant pay cut, and it’s not clear the Cowboys even made such an offer. In two of their high-profile publications in the past, they didn’t make any pay-cut offers to DeMarcus Ware or Dez Bryant.
“Zeke’s influence and impact has been etched into the Cowboys franchise in a very special and indelible way,” Jones said in a statement. “He was a consummate professional and leader who set the tone in our dressing room, on the practice field and in the huddle. Zeke defined what a great teammate should be and anyone who has ever played a team sport would be lucky to have a teammate like Zeke and much better for it.”
Also on Wednesday, the Cowboys restructured defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence’s contract and opened up $8.89 million to Cap Space, sources told ESPN, and agreed to a revised contract with offensive tackle Tyron Smith. They are the fourth and fifth players, after Dak Prescott, Zack Martin and Michael Gallup, whose contracts they have restructured in the past two weeks, freeing up nearly $45 million in leeway.
Smith was scheduled to earn $13.6 million in the final year of his contract, with $17.6 million counting towards the salary cap. With the changes, Smith’s base salary will decrease, but he’ll be able to make up the money based on how much he plays in 2023.
In 2019, Elliott signed a six-year, $90 million extension that included $50 million in guaranteed money, but his numbers have declined in the last three seasons, surpassing 1,000 yards (with 1,002) just once — in Year 2021 when the league expanded a 17-game schedule.
Injuries have slowed Elliott down for the past two years. Playing through a partially torn posterior cruciate ligament in 2021, he didn’t miss a game. He missed just two games in 2022 with a hyperextended right knee but wore a brace for most of the season.
While Elliott continued to be the starter, the Cowboys relied more on Pollard last season. Pollard rushed for 1,007 yards, scored 12 touchdowns, and earned his first Pro Bowl call. The Cowboys have until July 15 to work out a multi-year contract with him or he must play year on the day.
Elliott had a career-low 876 rushing yards in 2022, but he notched 12 touchdowns and remained a top short yardage back and pass protector. But in the last four games of the regular season, he averaged just 2.7 yards per carry and had just 17 carries of 10 yards or more during the season.
The Cowboys picked Elliott with the No. 4 in 2016 with the idea that he would extend Tony Romo’s career with one of the best offensive lines in football. They never played a regular season game together, with Romo suffering a back injury in the preseason, but Elliott helped fellow rookie Dak Prescott lead the Cowboys to a 13-3 record. Elliott rushed for the league-best 1,631 yards in 2016, the third-most by a rookie in NFL history, and had seven 100-yard games.
In 2017, he served a six-game suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct guidelines, but in 2018 he again led the league with 1,434 yards. In 2019, he finished fourth in the NFL in rushing for 1,357 yards.
He had 26 100-yard rushing games in his first four seasons but only three over the next three seasons, including none in 2022. Last season, he joined Hall of Famers Emmitt Smith and Tony Dorsett as a lone defenseman in team history who managed 10,000 all-purpose yards.
Elliott will be 28 in July. He ended his career with the Cowboys with 1,881 carries for 8,262 yards and 68 rushing touchdowns. He caught 305 passes for 1,336 yards and 12 touchdowns. His 80 career touchdowns are the third most in team history behind Smith (164) and Dorsett (86).