Category: Ezekiel Elliott

Is Ezekiel Elliott playing today? Cowboys RB room controversy 2 weeks in row

A look at the Cowboys RB situation heading into Week 9 of the 2024 season. | From @KDDrummondNFL

With the run game struggling, Dallas looked to promote veteran free agent and practice squad member Dalvin Cook last week. A four-time Pro Bowler, Cook was signed at the end of the offseason and naturally had a ramp-up period to get in shape. During that time, concrete evidence was formed that the Cowboys running game was a disaster, worse than the year prior thanks to obvious blocking issues and questions about the quality of the backs who were on the roster.

Cook’s elevation brought the question of who would sit in Week 8, fellow veteran Ezekiel Elliott or youngster Deuce Vaughn. The answer turned out to be starter Rico Dowdle, who it was reported got sick the day of the game but was spotted in good spirits, signing autographs and generally acting like a not-sick person would. That created a storm of conspiracy theory talk, and instead of moving on, Dallas has chosen to ramp things up a notch by leaving Ezekiel Elliott home for the Week 9 trip to Atlanta.

On Saturday the club informed Elliott he was going to be made inactive for the game against the Falcons. Apparently that led to an elevated disagreement between he and the coaching staff to the point the club disciplined him by not allowing him to travel with the team.

Fans should remember, Elliott was brought back to the club after a year in New England under the umbrella of being great for team chemistry.

The Dallas Cowboys may not be a rudderless ship, but they certainly seems to be having trouble negotiating the rough waters of the 2024 season. What metaphor or analogy fits the circumstances best is still to be decided, but things certainly haven’t been handled with the calm and smooth manner one would associate with an organized organization. The running back situation of the last two weeks certainly supports the negative associations.

Report: Ezekiel Elliott’s reaction to being inactive led Cowboys to leave him in Dallas

From @ToddBrock24f7: Elliott will be a healthy scratch for the first time. He apparently did not react well to the news and will not travel to Atlanta.

“Zeke Who?”

More like: Zeke… Hoo boy.

The Cowboys’ rushing attack has been utterly toothless thus far in 2024, and now not even Ezekiel Elliott will get fed in Week 9 when the team visits the Falcons hoping to get back to .500 ball.

The team website confirms that the ninth-year veteran will not travel to Atlanta with the team. He’ll be inactive for “disciplinary reasons,” according to a report first filed by ESPN’s Todd Archer.

David Moore of the Dallas Morning News reports that Elliott was told he’d be inactive and that, ostensibly based on Elliott’s reaction to the news, “a mutual decision was then made that he not accompany the team to Atlanta.”

It will mark the two-time rushing champ’s first healthy scratch in a game that’s not a “meaningless” season finale.

The 3-4 Cowboys currently rank dead last in the NFL in rushing yards and yards per carry. Elliott, in particular, has struggled in his return to Dallas after spending 2023 as a New England Patriot. The former fourth-overall pick is averaging fewer than seven rushing attempts and just 21.3 rushing yards per game, both career-worst numbers (by far) for the three-time Pro Bowler.

The Cowboys have been unable to make a planned running back by committee work through seven games this season. After signing Dalvin Cook prior to Week 1, the team left him inactive until last Sunday’s matchup with the 49ers. Once he finally took the field, Cook gained 12 yards on six carries in his Dallas debut.

Rico Dowdle, the team’s leading rusher, was a late inactive due to what the team called an illness; Deuce Vaughn was active but did not play.

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

Cook was elevated once again for Sunday’s game in Atlanta. Dowdle has not been listed on any of the week’s practice reports and carries no gameday designation.

No Cowboys ball carrier has had a run longer than 13 yards this season.

Whether the Cowboys win or lose on Sunday, Elliott’s benching, his apparent reaction to that development, and the fallout from that move will be a major storyline moving forward at The Star, just the latest chapter in a season that has turned dramatic for all the wrong reasons.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=video id=01jbhmcye8f8gn365ng6 playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01jbhmcye8f8gn365ng6/01jbhmcye8f8gn365ng6-cff46fe44eaaf3858ccd4f8bcc4710f7.jpg]

[lawrence-newsletter]

Jerry Jones gives eyebrow-raising take on Ezekiel Elliott’s role with Cowboys: ‘We’re saving him’

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys owner downplayed a report that Elliott was “dumbfounded” by his reduced workload and offered a mystifying explanation.

The man at the top of the Cowboys organization claims there is a master plan regarding the team’s running backs in 2024. This, despite a committee approach that has yielded just 410 rushing yards through five games, a total that ranks them 31st out of the league’s 32 teams.

A Thursday post on X from longtime Cowboys beat writer Clarence Hill Jr. stated that two-time rushing champ Ezekiel Elliott “confirmed he has talked to the coaches about his role and remains dumbfounded by his lack of opportunities at least as red zone back.”

Owner Jerry Jones not only took issue with the notion that there is any misunderstanding inside The Star, he offered an explanation for Elliott’s reduced role that many found positively mystifying.

“That’s an exaggeration. ‘Dumbfounded’ is an exaggeration,” Jones told 105.3 The Fan on Friday. “It’s a bad description of how he feels about things. He’s very much aware of the part of the running game that he’s involved with. More importantly- and I can’t emphasize this enough- we’re saving him. And we should be.”

Elliott has logged just 30 carries this season but hasn’t had double-digit rushing attempts since his 10 in the season opener. He has totaled just 98 yards on the ground and one touchdown. He’s been on the field for just over 30% of the Cowboys’ offensive snaps in 2024, seeing as few as 10 snaps in the Week 4 win over the Giants.

But the idea that Elliott is causing friction inside the locker room or with coaches over his downgraded role is one that the three-time Pro Bowler is quick to shoot down himself.

“It is definitely a little different, but I mean just to keep my head down, continue to work. Hopefully my opportunity comes,” Elliott said, per the team website. “Just kind of letting it play itself out. Honestly, I’ve been focused on being a good teammate. I’ve been focusing on continuing to help lead this team. Not really so much making it about me, just making it about this football team, to win football games.”

The Cowboys are coming off their best team rushing performance in Week 5’s win over Pittsburgh, a game in which depth back Rico Dowdle enjoyed career highs in rushing attempts (20) and yards (87).

Dowdle has looked like the more explosive back for the Dallas offense, but Jones admitted that the club is leery of putting too many eggs into the basket of a fifth-year veteran who has appeared in 41 games total.

“Rico is an outstanding running back,” Jones explained. “He’s always had the challenge- mainly, I guess, because of his size in doing the blocking and protecting the quarterback. But his big problem has been what? He’s had troubles with injury over his career. And so it’d be madness to just rely on him for the duration of the season and into the playoffs.”

Of course, one can easily question the wisdom of making postseason personnel decisions a full three months ahead of time. At 3-2, the Cowboys have a long way to go, and their 3.5-yard-per-carry average will likely need to improve for them to even make the tournament.

And that is why so many are questioning the apparent workload split. Elliott is- if Jones is to be believed- being held in reserve despite being brought back to town to ostensibly be the bulldozing short-yardage specialist. And four-time Pro Bowler Dalvin Cook remains on the practice squad, still waiting to see the field in a Cowboys uniform. Yet it was Dowdle (with his 606 career rushing yards) who was given a critical goal-line carry at the end of Week 5’s game… and fumbled.

It’s not a knock on Dowdle, really, but it does pose the question: what, exactly, are the Cowboys “saving” anything or anyone for?

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

“Ezekiel is there. He will be there because we want to protect him during this particular time as much as anything. And then, of course, you’ve got a player like Dalvin Cook out there in the wings that is going to be very material as we go forward,” Jones added.

“They’re there for everybody to see. It’s no secret, and we’re going to use them. I keep my fingers crossed every time I see Rico grab that ball. He’s a violent runner, he’s an outstanding runner, and we wouldn’t even be having a running back conversation if he’d been able to stay healthy the last two or three years.”

Jones maintains there is no timeline on Cook’s debut, nor is there a set snap count currently for Elliott. To hear him tell it, both players are basically insurance policies for Dowdle, though he promises both will be deployed at some point.

So for now, the Cowboys’ running back committee will apparently look to keep on keeping on.

“I think the biggest thing is we got the attempts [for the group],” said Elliott. “I think it is tough early in the game when you run the football, because the defenses, they’re not tired, They’re fresh and all geared up. But once you get that second half and you start getting those attempts, you start to see that D-line wear down. … I think the biggest thing is to continue to try to get those attempts.”

Whoever’s getting them.

It’s all part, supposedly, of a master plan.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=video id=01j9y4ebdsg38hzq6410 playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01j9y4ebdsg38hzq6410/01j9y4ebdsg38hzq6410-b8a536c2d37265bfa7f0097d1e95880e.jpg]

[lawrence-newsletter]

‘We’re running back by committee’: Cowboys’ McCarthy confirms timeshare for Elliott, Dowdle, others

From @ToddBrock24f7: McCarthy says Zeke looks the same, but his role will be different in 2024. The coach has certainly run his share of past RB committees.

The Cowboys currently have eight running backs on the roster. As the veterans and rookies practice together for the first time, there are plenty of questions about which one will be the primary ballcarrier for 2024.

According to head coach Mike McCarthy, the answer is: none of the above.

“We’re running back by committee,” he told reporters at the conclusion of rookie minicamp.

Two-time rushing champ Ezekiel Elliott is back with the club and obviously the most experienced of the bunch. And while McCarthy claims that, so far, “it’s like he picked up right where he left off,” the coach seemed to confirm that the third-leading running back in franchise history- who turns 29 in July- won’t be logging 230-plus carries this year, as he had in each of his three previous seasons under McCarthy in Dallas.

“I don’t think that’s fair,” McCarthy said. “That’s not going to be his role.”

McCarthy acknowledged that modern NFL offenses have largely moved past the days of the bellcow feature back. And he certainly remembers those days well. He was on the sidelines in Kansas City for the last five years of Marcus Allen’s Hall of Fame career. In New Orleans, he gave Ricky Williams 561 carries in two seasons and then gave Deuce McAllister 945 over the next three. And he wasn’t shy about calling Ryan Grant’s number 312 times one year in Green Bay.

But despite putting Elliott in the league’s top 10 in rushing attempts every season from 2020 to 2022, McCarthy will be looking at Rico Dowdle, Royce Freeman, Deuce Vaughn, Hunter Luepke, Malik Davis, Snoop Conner, and UDFA Nathaniel Peat to help shoulder some of the Cowboys’ load this year.

“Seventeen games is lot of football, that’s a big role for those guys,” McCarthy explained. “Don’t get me wrong; they’d all like to carry it like the old days and have those touches, but you want those guys fresh at the most important time of the year.”

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

How the workload will actually be split, of course, remains to be seen. But McCarthy has definitely run his share of committees, too. In 2022, Elliott and Tony Pollard had a 54/46 percentage split in carries. Eleven seasons prior, Ryan Grant and James Starks had an even closer division of labor: 134 and 133 carries, respectively, for a McCarthy-led Green Bay team that finished 15-1.

And his 2016 Packers saw eight different players tally double-digit rushing attempts, with nobody tallying more than 80. That RB room included Starks, Ty Montgomery, Eddie Lacy, Aaron Ripkowski, Christine Michael, Don Jackson, and Knile Davis… and bears a strong resemblance to the veritable sampler platter of backfield options Dallas plans to work with this summer.

Green Bay went 10-6 that season, earned a wild-card berth, beat the favored Cowboys in the divisional round, and made it to the NFC Championship.

Most Cowboys fans would be thrilled with an outcome like that in 2024, even if it means needing a program to keep track of who’s running the ball at any given time.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=video id=01hwnq5hx7atz07evs4k playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01hwnq5hx7atz07evs4k/01hwnq5hx7atz07evs4k-f3c6f3fd45b6d3fcf220f447423a695d.jpg]

[lawrence-newsletter]

Elliott formally signs contract to return to Cowboys; will wear No. 21 again

From @ToddBrock24f7: The 2-time rushing champ made it official Tuesday on a 1-year deal worth up to $3 million. He’ll wear the same number as his first 7 years.

Ezekiel Elliott is officially a Dallas Cowboy again, and it’s just like he never left… right down to the jersey he’ll be wearing.

“It feels great to be home,” he said Tuesday. “I definitely missed everyone here, definitely missed the building, definitely missed Cowboys Nation. It’s exciting to be back and get this thing going.”

The veteran running back put pen to paper at The Star in Frisco, formally signing the one-year deal worth up to a reported $3 million, with $2 million of it guaranteed.

That price tag is more commensurate with what the team can likely expect to get out of the two-time rushing champ, as opposed to the decline in stats that began soon after he signed the 2019 contract that made him one of the highest-paid rushers in league history.

Elliott will turn 29 in July, and he believes he can still be a starter. He joined the Patriots in 2023 to be part of a rotation but had to assume starting duties there after Rhamondre Stevenson went down.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones saw that and feels Elliott can return to a prominent role in Dallas, too. He’s by far the most battle-tested ballcarrier in the building, leading a group that includes Rico Dowdle, Royce Freeman, Deuce Vaughn, Hunter Luepke, Snoop Conner, Malik Davis, and brand-new UDFA Nathaniel Peat.

Elliott is seen by most as still a viable option in short-yardage and goal-line situations, and his pass-blocking skills remain unquestioned. But how he’ll actually be used in Mike McCarthy’s second season as the Cowboys’ offensive play-caller will no doubt be a question that’s asked all summer long.

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

What we do know is that Elliott is back, and he’ll be rocking the No. 21 jersey that he sold shiploads of during his first stint with the club. (He wore No. 15- his college digits- in New England, while free agent cornerback Stephon Gilmore adopted the No. 21 for Dallas last season.)

Elliott was a fan favorite for seven years, and now fans won’t even have to buy new jerseys to show their love for Zeke when he and the Cowboys take the field in 2024.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=video id=01hwr4zs49nj51yh95mn playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01hwr4zs49nj51yh95mn/01hwr4zs49nj51yh95mn-832f20387b43075a64614a15138f20f7.jpg]

[lawrence-newsletter]

Reunited: Cowboys, Ezekiel Elliott agree to terms

The Cowboys reunite with running back Ezekiel Elliott on a one-year deal. | From @ArmyChiefW3

A year after being released by the Cowboys, Dallas has reportedly agreed to terms with running back Ezekiel Elliott on a one-year, $3 million deal including $2 million guaranteed. Dallas walked away from the 2024 draft without selecting a runner and moved quickly to fill the need.

The Cowboys hosted Elliott and his representatives at team headquarters just before the draft and a reunion makes sense. The Cowboys struggled to rush the ball in short yardage situations last season and his skillset could be extremely valuable next season.

Elliott rejoins a backfield that includes 2023 RB2 Rico Dowdle, 2023 sixth-round pick Deuce Vaughn, 2023 UDFA Hunter Luepke, as well as Malik Davis, Royce Freeman and Snoop Conner. Dallas also signed Nate Peat in UDFA over the weekend.

Dallas selected Elliott with the fourth overall selection in the 2016 NFL draft. In his rookie season, He rushed 322 times for 1,631 yards and 15 touchdowns. Elliott would receive 43% of the AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year votes but come in second place to fellow rookie teammate, quarterback Dak Prescott.

Elliott’s second season was cut short due to a very public legal battle which eventually ended with him serving a six-game suspension. He would only play in 10 games that season and the Cowboys would miss the playoffs.

After his third season, Elliott and his representatives angled for a contract extension and held out before signing a six-year, $90 million deal with $50 million of that guaranteed. That contract should have kept him in Dallas through the 2026 season but the team opted to go in a different direction following 2022.

On March 31, 2023, Dallas cut Elliott as a Post-June 1st release, providing immediate salary cap relief for the team. The long-term results left a pile of dead money including $6 million for the 2024 season.

In just seven seasons in Dallas, Elliott ranks third on the team’s All-Time rushing list behind Hall of Famers Emmitt Smith (17,162) and Tony Dorsett (12,036) with 8,262 rushing yards. He also ranks third in rushing touchdowns (68) and rushing attempts (1881),

In total, Ezekiel Elliott is tied to Dallas with two contracts that will count roughly $9 million on the Cowboys books in 2024.

Report: Former Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott to sign with Patriots

From @ToddBrock24f7: The two-time rushing champ will join New England on a one-year deal worth up to $6 million; he’ll face the Cowboys in Arlington in Week 4.

When the Cowboys host the New England Patriots in Week 4, an awful lot of blue-and-silver-clad fans will still be wearing the name and number of one of the opponents, according to news that broke late Monday.

Zeke Who???

Longtime Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott is expected to sign a one-year deal with the Patriots, as first reported by NFL insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero.

Elliott worked out with New England earlier this summer in his bid to land with a new team after being released by the Cowboys in March. Elliott amassed over 8,000 rushing yards in seven years in Dallas, winning the league rushing title in two of his first three seasons as a pro.

Elliott’s new deal is thought to be worth up to $6 million.

The Patriots’ ground attack last season was led by 25-year-old Rhamondre Stevenson, who tallied 1,040 yards over 17 games.

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

Elliott, who just turned 28, looks to be set to return to the No. 15 he wore at Ohio State. The Patriots website listed punter Corliss Waitman as having that jersey as of Monday afternoon, but Elliott himself posted a message to social media suggesting that he’s ready to take over his college number.

Many Cowboys fans were hoping for a reunion that would bring the rusher back to Dallas on a reduced contract. Now it appears Elliott will, in fact, return to AT&T Stadium on Oct. 1… but he’ll be wearing a Patriots uniform.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=video id=01h7h3xed7t5vn659czs playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01h7h3xed7t5vn659czs/01h7h3xed7t5vn659czs-25e1b5c53e81fe75fac017bd53ea092f.jpg]

[lawrence-newsletter]

McCarthy ready to ‘develop the room’ of Cowboys RBs; Jerry Jones keeps door open for Zeke

From @ToddBrock24f7: With Ronald Jones out for 2 games, the Cowboys owner is thinking about his former two-time rushing champ: ‘”He’s not ruled out at all here.”

Rumblings about a possible reunion between the Cowboys and free agent running back Ezekiel Elliott haven’t really died off since the club released him in March.

The volume got turned up as padded practices began in Oxnard this week, with team ownership claiming publicly that the door is still very much open.

With the announcement Monday that veteran running back Ronald Jones will be suspended for the first two games of the 2023 season for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances, talk among the team’s followers naturally turned to bringing back the the two-time rushing champ.

“A very legitimate question,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told The K&C Masterpiece on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday before cryptically adding, “And we’re reading the tea leaves.”

What Ronald Jones will be able to contribute this season is murky at best.

The former USC Trojan has never had a 1,000-yard rushing campaign in five NFL seasons and saw just 17 attempts last year in Kansas City. But his veteran presence was thought to be a benefit for the young platoon of ball carriers currently in Dallas.

“We support him, and we’ll work through this,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said of the situation Tuesday.

Jones’s suspension won’t affect the top of the depth chart for the Dallas backs. Tony Pollard still steps into the lead role for 2023, but is coming off a devastating knee and ankle injury suffered just over six months ago. Behind him is a stable of largely-unproven youngsters. Malik Davis and Rico Dowdle have a combined 45 NFL carries; Deuce Vaughn and Hunter Luepke are true rookies.

McCarthy seems prepared to lean on that crew, at least for this early portion of camp.

“To me, that’s really part of the training camp environment,” the coach told media members on Tuesday. “It’s a young room; we knew that going in. The development of all those guys so far has been impressive. The running back group as whole had a solid day yesterday.”

Jones may continue practicing with the team and can even play in preseason contests, but every rep he gets prior to Week 1 is one less opportunity for a rusher who could be called upon to actually tote the rock on opening night in New York.

“We’ll just continue to develop the room,” McCarthy said.

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

But it’s obvious that Elliott could walk back into that room pretty seamlessly after amassing over 8,200 rushing yards over seven seasons wearing the star. The just-turned 28-year-old spent much of the summer working out with his former Cowboys teammates, but he did meet recently with the New England Patriots. And with injuries already starting to affect the plans of teams like the Seattle Seahawks, it’s entirely possible that Elliott will not be on the open market much longer.

For Jerry Jones, a sudden hole at the position (even if only for just two games), an increased demand for a former star player, and the physical nature of the team’s padded practices all appear to have the billionaire thinking once more about the former first-round draft pick for whom he admittedly has a soft spot.

“All of a sudden, you start thinking about the kinds of things you ought to be thinking about when you’re evaluating at camp,” Jones said of Elliott. “He’s not ruled out at all here.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=video id=01h6exec0cxkbv2nfvkw playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01h6exec0cxkbv2nfvkw/01h6exec0cxkbv2nfvkw-58efde08c9a99a56a104c66cb60c5421.jpg]

[lawrence-newsletter]

Ezekiel Elliott scheduled to visit Patriots

Were Elliott to land with the Patriots, a return to Texas would be right around the corner as the two teams clash in October. | From @KDDrummondNFL

One of the biggest discussions over the past month has been the deterioration of the running back market in the NFL. Running backs have long been the position where the best Pop Warner and high school athletes have played, but as it stands now it’s one of the least valued positions when it comes to the professional ranks. Save for the footballers who actually touch the ball with their feet, no other position has less players making more than $10 million on average.

That landscape played a role in the Dallas Cowboys releasing star running back Ezekiel Elliott over the spring. Originally signed to a six-year extension on top of two remaining years, Elliott’s guaranteed money ran through the 2022 season so it wasn’t a surprise. What has been a bit of a shocker is that a back with clear leadership traits, a team-first attitude and an insatiable nose for the end zone has not latched on with another club yet. With training camps starting up this week and teams getting a close look at their current stables, the market is starting to pick up. Elliott is included in that mix as he’s expected to visit with the New England Patriots this weekend according to Mike Reiss of ESPN.

The Patriots’ backfield is currently spearheaded by Rhamondre Stevenson, a 2021 fourth-round pick. Stevenson ran for 1,010 yards last season on 210 carries and has scored five rushing touchdowns in each of his two seasons. He’s a big back, weighing in at 227 pounds and standing 6-foot tall. He’s backed up by Pierre Strong, a 2022 fourth rounder who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 205 pounds.

Strong has just 10 career carries, so there isn’t much experience in the Patriots’ backfield. That clearly isn’t the case with Elliott. Elliott ranks No. 20 all-time in the league for yards from scrimmage over the first seven years of a career, with 10,598. The names above him are a who’s who in terms of NFL running backs.

Elliott’s 80 touchdowns scored rank him 12th among the category.

In other words, his next team is certainly going to have someone who has been there, done that. If that happens to be the Patriots, Elliott would return home to Dallas on October 1, when the two teams meet at AT&T Stadium.

[lawrence-auto-related count=2 tag=119667057][lawrence-newsletter]

Cowboys just days away from over $20M in cap space

A decision in the spring is about to come to fruition heading into the summer. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys are on the verge of having a bunch of salary cap space for 2023 and beyond. Right now, Dallas sits at $10.5 million of available space. This is after they signed their entire 2023 draft class ahead of the onset of OTAs. With all of their draft picks inked already, the Cowboys have a sizable amount of wiggle room for any summer signings they are interested in making.

And that amount is going to more than double in about 48 hours. That’s because the Cowboys have yet to receive the cap space from the organizations decision to part ways with running back Ezekiel Elliott, adding another $10.9 million in space for a grand total of $21.4 million.

Elliott was released as a June 1 cut; a favor move each team can do twice each offseason. It doesn’t do much for the club at the time, but rather it allows a player to test the open market while other teams still have free agency dollars at their disposal.

NFL accounting is mostly funny money, with bonus amounts being allocated across multiple years. This allows teams to spend way above the hard cap amount on salaries each spring. A $20 million signing bonus may be paid to a player at the time they were signed, but it is spread out evenly across up to five years so the cap hit isn’t outrageous.

Teams are also allowed to have option bonuses and also restructure base salaries into bonuses which can also be spread out, moving cap hits to later in the deal’s structure when they will take up a lower percentage of the ever-increasing salary cap.

While those moves benefit the team and make no difference to the player, a June 1 move is the exact opposite. The team doesn’t see the cap savings from the release until June 2, but the player has freedom to shop his services.

On June 2, Elliott’s $10.9 million base salary will be removed from the Cowboys’ ledger, leaving only his $5.82 million bonus allocation on this year’s books. After June 1, bonus money allocated to future years will accelerate onto the next year’s cap.

Elliott will cost the Cowboys $6.04 million in 2024 despite being long gone.

If Dallas had released Elliott outright earlier in the spring, they would have gotten the relief of the $10.9 million immediately but his $6.04 million would have accelerated onto the 2023 cap, netting Dallas  $4.86 million of savings this year immediately and avoiding any dead money next year.

Teams make conscious decisions each offseason whether they want to bite the bullet in its entirety or spread the pain out over multiple seasons. Leftover cap space is rolled over to the next season, so while it might look like Dallas did themselves a disservice with their decision, it’s really moving money from one had to another and giving them the option of using that space now.