Three years into his career, Ezekiel Elliott was already a wealthy man, but the situation changed for him on Wednesday morning. In the wee hours of the morning, Zeke signed a massive contract extension worth $90 million. This ended his holdout in spectacular fashion and gave the star running back the ability to laugh all the way to the bank.
According to multiple sources, Zeke entered the contract negotiations with a reported net worth of $12 million. He also has career earnings of $20.54 through the first three seasons of his rookie contract, but he has lost some money due to fines. Now, however, the situation has changed. According to Spotrac, the new deal is for six years and $90 million that will make Zeke the highest-paid running back in the league. This deal also includes $50 million guaranteed and tops more than $100 million in total value when paired with the final two years of his rookie deal.
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Of course, what do the numbers really mean? In the modern social media-driven era of reporting, it’s easy enough to throw out all sorts of numbers, such as “guaranteed this” or “total value that,” but a good number of NFL players don’t ultimately reach the initially reported values of their deal. They either get released, traded, or sign another extension down the road.
For Zeke, the only terms that have been revealed are the value of the contract and the guaranteed money. Any applicable signing bonus is unknown, along with what portion is guaranteed at signing. If the Cowboys chose to front-load Zeke’s deal due to the upcoming changes in the Collective Bargaining Agreement and the salary cap, he could be taking home close to all $50 million guaranteed at signing.
This would leave the team open to parting ways with him sooner rather than later if there was a dip in production or another outside circumstance affecting his value. In fact, the deal could switch from eight years and $103 million to only four years and $50 million, depending on how much of Zeke’s salary counts against the cap in the coming few years.
Of course, if Zeke keeps producing at a similar level while helping the Cowboys reach the playoffs many more times, there is no reason to doubt that he will play out the entire deal and take home the $103 million.
Either way, landing this significant pay raise means that Zeke’s net worth will be drastically increasing over the coming years. Adding another $50 million to the existing $12 million is not a small move, and he will shoot up the list of wealthiest NFL running backs.
