So really it’s a 4 year $50MM deal. That actually makes some sense. He will never see beyond year 4. By then he shouldn’t care.

You wish

That’s pretty dang fantastic. He didn’t have to do that. Didn’t have to reply. Didn’t have to keep replying. A humbling gesture by a celebrity.

$15 million a year! More than 99% of what Americans make in a lifetime but yea he's worth it and not the only athlete overpaid! What a f'ed up world we live in!
To each his own!

Lol>future

Zeke could average 1400 a year until he's 33 years old and still not catch Emmitt

Surely that is satire?

Here's some of the details .

Ezekiel Elliott Extension:

Season Elliott Age Entering Base Salary
2019 24 $752,137
2020 25 $6.8M
2021 26 $9.6M
2022 27 $12.4M
2023 28 $10.9M
2024 29 $10M
2025 30 $15.4M
2026 31 $16.6M


$7.5M signing bonus with a $13M option bonus in 2020
The narrative is that the Cowboys caved, right? Elliott got his $90M deal with $50M guaranteed, but so much of what’s important lies in one particular detail.

Note: The first two years of the deal are fully guaranteed, totaling $28 million at signing. The base salaries in 2021 and 2022 become fully guaranteed on the fifth day of the league years in 2020 and 2021.

This gives the Cowboys potential outs much sooner than the deal would suggest. In fact, as Spotrac noted, the Cowboys can get out of this deal after 2022. That would be Elliott’s age 27 season when, barring injury, should still be operating at his prime.

Ezekiel Elliott deserves to be paid top dollar, after all he is one of the best running backs in the NFL. But the Cowboys deserve, in their minds and the minds of many, to feel like they got a win, and theirs is the ability for an early exit. The deal is, as many have noted, essentially a four-year deal for $50M.


Good deal for both parties. This is a much better contract than the Gurley deal from the Rams .

Yep

What is the cap hit if the cowboys get out of the deal in 2022?

My memory is still too burned with repeated news stories about re-structuring Romo's deal because his cap hit was too high, and that kept those Cowboys teams with mediocre talent around Tony for years. That scenario needs to be avoided at all costs.

nice breakdown btw - thanks for the explanation

The problem with the cap hits the Cowboys took in previous years was the result of Rewarding players huge contracts AFTER their prime, Dionne Sanders, Emmit, Irvin, Romo and more. The difference is paying for production in their prime.

Yeah, well how are they gonna keep their other top players out of free agency next year and in years to come? Dallas is cap constrained, now. They can't pay EVERYONE!

This was my point all along. You're going to have to make choices, and RB just isn't as important to winning in the NFL as it used to be. You need to be able to protect your QB, throw the ball accurately consistently, and disrupty the other team's passer. You can get 90% of the performance at 30% of the cost by using a committee of RB specialists (one good for running inside and goal line, one for receiving, one for pass blocking, etc.). You can' do that same thing at defensive end, QB, OL, etc., so that's where it's smart to spend your money. NFL GM basics...

Fromk all reports the NFL will be raising the salary cap quite a bit over the next few years. Having to pay the guys you drafted is a good thing. It means your scouting department is doing a heck of a job.

Agreed, I would have tried to get an elite QB. TX has been right all along.

The cap was self imposed by the owners to limit the amount they HAD to pay out. Its all BS, and most people can see that.