Now that Ezekiel Elliott is an official camp holdout, is his deal getting addressed?
Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott was not on the team plane Thursday when it departed Dallas for training camp in Oxnard, California, and did not show up for the morning physical or the conditioning run on Friday, ushering in an official holdout.
The two-time NFL rushing champion has two years left on his rookie deal, but he wants to get paid immediately just as Los Angeles Rams RB Todd Gurley did last year in agreeing to a four-year, $60 million contract extension after his third season.
Speaking at the annual press conference to open training camp on Friday, owner Jerry Jones didn’t mince any words on Elliott.
“He’s late. We’ve officially reported so he is a ‘non-report’ officially and all of the mechanisms that are in place with your collective bargaining agreement and structurally onto the contract everything is in place and addressed if you’re not where you’re contracted to be, so he’s late. We expect everybody that’s under contract to be here at camp.”
Elliott can be fined $40,000 for each day of training camp that he misses, under Article 42 and Section 1 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. And he would lose the opportunity to earn an accrued season if he doesn’t report by Aug. 6.
Jones wouldn’t confirm if the Cowboys will fine Elliott. It is at the discretion of the team under the CBA.
“It provides for that,” Jones said. “Again, it certainly provides for that and I’ve not ever made it a practice of getting into the details of how we execute our agreements or how we operate within our agreements. But his agreement provides for fines and it’s certainly doable under the CBA.”
Though the Cowboys are disappointed in Elliott’s absence, they are not shocked. His threat of a holdout has been known. And considering the two sides have been in discussions on a new deal as recently as Thursday with no progress, then his absence was a given.
Elliott’s whereabouts are unknown. Elliott’s agent Rocky Arceneaux did return calls for comment.
“I think that’s fair to say that we probably had a pretty good indication that if we weren’t able to agree on something then he probably wasn’t going to be here,” vice president Stephen Jones said.
Elliott not only wants to get paid immediately but he want to surpass Gurley as the league’s highest-paid running back.
The Cowboys have said they plan on signing Elliott to an extension but prioritized him behind new deals for quarterback Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper because they are heading into the final year of their contracts.
Now the Cowboys plan to take a three-pronged approach to get all three deals done before the start of the season.
Elliott certainly has forced the Cowboys hand in focusing on his deal now.
“The only thing that everybody wants to point to is Zeke has this year and an option year left and the other two are out after this year,” Stephen Jones said. “You know. If you want to call that a pecking order, then fine. But we’ve also made it real clear we’d like to sign Zeke long term.”
Stephen Jones also expressed confidence in a dealing getting done with Elliott, as well as Prescott and Cooper.
To that end, Jerry Jones is not alarmed. He doesn’t believe Elliott’s holdout will be a distraction to the team. He called it business as usual.
“It is not alarming that you have to get up or go to bed thinking about some aspect of it when you’re dealing with the numbers of contracts that you are,” Jones said. “I don’t want to seem cavalier. Zeke is an outstanding player. I don’t want to seem cavalier about it, but I also don’t want to be unrealistic being alarmed about it. This is what we do. This is the air we breathe. And if you flared and knee-jerked or went just because you have parts of it that need addressing, you wouldn’t be able to manage. You wouldn’t be functioning.
“I just want to put it in perspective — notwithstanding what is important to you that our fans have a feel for the consequences and what this is about, Zeke not being here. I want to say to you this is business as usual.”
This story was originally published July 26, 2019 at 1:04 PM.
