Since being somewhat surprisingly released by the Dallas Cowboys, Ezekiel Elliott’s market hasn’t exactly been hot. While we heard of the report suggesting Zeke had his own shortlist of teams he’d like to join, apparently the interest isn’t mutual.
Elliott was released from his spendy contract with the Cowboys on March 15. The three-time Pro Bowl running back hasn’t taken a single official visit since. By all appearances, teams aren’t itching to add the 27-year-old former All-Pro to their roster quite yet.
Now with the 2023 NFL Draft looming in late April, some teams may prefer to wait and see if they can add a young, inexpensive option to their backfield instead of one who has 1,881 career rushing attempts at the NFL level.
While there hasn’t been a team officially linked to signing Elliott just yet, one potential solution could be simply to end up back with the Dallas Cowboys.
Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones recently revealed the team never offered Elliott the option to simply take a pay cut to stay with Dallas. He also indicated the door isn’t closed on the former fan favorite returning to ‘America’s Team’ still this offseason.
“I don’t want to ever and I don’t want to leave him hanging or fans hanging or anybody. But I wouldn’t take any possibility off the table.”
Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones on being open to an Ezekiel Elliott return
Elliott was really only released due to having a $16.7 million cap hit for 2023. With the Cowboys also set to pay his then-backup Tony Pollard $10.1 million on the franchise tag this season, paying two running backs a total of $26.8 million just wasn’t feasible.
Yet, now that the fourth overall pick of the 2016 NFL Draft has had some time to discover what his market is, maybe he’d be willing to return to the Cowboys at a fraction of the cost. In the end, landing back in Dallas may be best for everyone, with Zeke returning to AT&T Stadium in front of the Cowboys’ faithful while also having a key role with a playoff-hopeful team.
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