We are officially 50 days away from the 2019 NFL season starting and once again we are heading into a new season talking about the Dallas Cowboys, specifically Ezekiel Elliot. The Dallas Cowboys began their first six games last season without their star running back due to a domestic violence abuse charge and according to Profootballtalk, Ezekiel Elliot has said privately that he will hold out of training camp unless a new deal gets done. Keep in mind that Elliot is planning to hold out, TWO YEARS before his contract runs out and he expects the Dallas Cowboys to meet his demands. It's time for the Cowboys to move on.
So once again, Ezekiel Elliot is creating organizational issues right before the season starts which is now the second time out of the last three season that Elliot has become the problem before the season even kicks off. The Cowboys don't have time to wait around for Elliot to suddenly become more mature because if you wait too long then you're stuck with an immature, 4,000 carries, aging, run into the ground running back with minimal trade value, all because you waited too long. They either re-sign him and continue to deal with the immaturity or trade him at the prime of his career and receive a king's ransom for him, I prefer the latter.
By the Cowboys moving on from Ezekiel Elliot in his prime a few things will happen, they will receive a fortune for him just like Jimmy Johnson did back in 1989 when he traded Herschel Walker - at that time- the Cowboys best player, to the Vikings for five players and six draft picks, also known as the best trade in NFL history. Ezekiel Elliot has tremendous value as of right now, and after the next two years, his worth to the franchise or franchises could plummet due to the wear and tear of playing running back in the NFL.
Also, it will allow the Cowboys to see if their QB, Dak Prescott is really worth all the money that he wants and the Cowboys will be able to transition into the running back by comity era of the NFL which the New England Patriots helped make famous and so transcendent around the NFL. Lastly, if Prescott does prove he is worth the money, then by trading Elliot, the Cowboys will have more money to sign or re-sign key players and have more drafts picks, all while building around Prescott because it is no longer a running back league, it's a QB league. The era of a team winning a championship with a running back as their nucleus is long gone.
Have you ever heard the saying, it's better late than never? Well, the Cowboys cannot afford to be late on this opportunity to trade a star player at a position where you don't need a star to win a championship. For example, in the last six years, just two out of the six teams that have won a super bowl were not a running back by comity team and that's because those teams (Denver Broncos & Seattle Seahawks) had two of the best defenses that we have ever seen in the super bowl era so they didn't need to rely on their offense to win games.
The Cowboys screwing this obvious decision up would be the epitome of the Dallas Cowboys. Listen Cowboys fans, in 1989 your team traded Herschel Walker away and got better, the Vikings traded away hall of fame running back Adrian Peterson and have yet to have a losing season since trading him, just 5 years ago the Cowboys traded away the best running back in the NFL and by my accounts, haven't missed a beat without him.
Jerry Jones has a big decision to make and if I were him, I would make the decision that didn't set my organization back another 4-5 years from winning a championship. As I said, the Cowboys cannot afford to be late on this opportunity.
