Rowdy
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- Mar 18, 2019
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He has gotten the team’s attention, even if the team is doing its best to downplay the situation. The question now becomes whether the team will do enough to get him to running back Ezekiel Elliott to show up for training camp.
Ten days ago, most believed that Elliott stood third in line (at best) for a new contract, that he wasn’t getting one this year, and that he had no problem with that. Then came first word that Elliott is privately saying he plans to hold out, an indication that the ensuing week would be critical to whether he shows up, chatter that he’s making plans to leave the country, and finally a report from the league’s own media outlet (partially owned by the Cowboys themselves), that a holdout will happen unless “contract negotiations are going in the right direction or at least he trusts the Cowboys to get a deal done.”
On Wednesday, coach Jason Garrett acted like the issue was news to him, and it may have been. One league source tells PFT that the issue is exclusively being handled by COO Stephen Jones, and that everyone below him in the organization is completely out of the loop.
So the question remains: Will Elliott show up? The answer hinges on whether Jones has said and/or done enough to get Elliott to believe that the team won’t squat on his rights for the next two years and then wish him good luck and Godspeed like they did when DeMarco Murray’s contract expired two months after he led the league in rushing and set a franchise single-season rushing record.
Stephen Jones has told #PFTPM that Elliott is “the straw, if you will, that stirs our drink.” Elliott seems to be willing to stir something other than Johnny Walker Blue unless the Cowboys decide not to treat the fact that Elliott is signed through 2020 as a reason to ignore his contract situation until next year, at the earliest.