Dallas Cowboys rookie first-round pick Ezekiel Elliott is a rich man after agreeing to a four-year, $24.7 million fully guaranteed contract on Wednesday.
Ezekiel Elliott gets about $24.7m fully guaranteed over four years. Biggest rookie RB deal since Trent Richardson got just over $20m.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) May 18, 2016
While the terms of the deal aren’t necessarily a surprise considering the rookie wage scale and slotting system, Elliott’s contract now gives him the second-most guaranteed money among NFL running backs.
That’s ahead of Adrian Peterson ($20 million) and former Cowboys star DeMarco Murray ($12.5 million).
He hasn’t played a single snap in the NFL, ladies and gentlemen.
The whole idea of the rookie wage scale, conceived during the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement, was to make sure teams weren’t on the hook for huge contracts as it relates to unproven players.
Though, the current financial situation regarding running backs makes this seem a bit less ridiculous. In a vacuum, the rookie wage scale has worked to perfection around the NFL.
Instead, this is just another example of how much under-valued the running back position is in the league today.
How someone of Peterson’s ilk could be guaranteed less in cold-hard cash than a wide-eyed rookie is beyond comprehension.
It also tells us a story of a Cowboys team that has a lot riding on this years’ No. 4 overall pick.