Tony Pollard will hit the open market when the NFL’s free agency period begins next week. But the running back who has spent five years in Dallas may find himself right back with the Cowboys when it’s all said and done.
And to do so, he may even take less money than a potential suitor would give him.
According to Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News, Pollard is open to a return to the Cowboys backfield in 2024, even if he gets a better contract offer from another team in the coming days. That’s from “a person with knowledge of Pollard’s thinking,” per Watkins.
Last season saw Pollard post over 1,000 rushing yards while playing on the franchise tag. He finished 2023 as the league’s 12th-best rusher in terms of yardage, but the former fourth-round draft pick out of Memphis never showed the same electric burst that had marked his earlier years as a change-of-pace back alongside Ezekiel Elliott.
The Cowboys, however, maintained that they were pleased overall with Pollard’s production, especially considering he was coming off a brutal leg injury suffered in January 2023 during the team’s playoff loss to San Francisco.
Still, the front office elected not to use a second franchise tag on him for 2024, a move that will now allow the soon-to-be-27-year-old to test the waters of free agency.
Pollard will almost assuredly get offers, but he may find the market flooded with competing veteran ballcarriers. Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, Austin Ekeler, Josh Jacobs, D’Andre Swift, and Alexander Mattison are among the running backs also looking for new teams.
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Watkins explains that the team expects Pollard to field as many offers as possible before talking to the Cowboys about a potential return.
Pollard himself said as recently as Super Bowl Week that he would prefer to remain in Dallas “if I could choose.” And NBC’s Matthew Berry was told at last week’s scouting combine, “Don’t be surprised if they bring Pollard back.”
Now it may come down to the price tag offered by another team and how far off it Pollard is willing to come to keep the star on his helmet.
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