Ezekiel Elliott is now a very rich man, agreeing to a six-year, $90 million contract extension with the Dallas Cowboys. And now that the deal is done, team owner Jerry Jones has shed some light on the contract. Jones recently made an appearance on CNBC and revealed why he wanted to get this deal done.
“I just turned my pockets inside out, it means I’m $100 million lighter as of this morning, Jones said jokingly. “Zeke has been arguably our best player, I’m not trying to be unfair to anyone else. But he’s an incremental part to our success. We’re glad to have him booked in. We’re glad to have in on the team.”
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Jones knows signing Elliott to a monster contract is a little risky considering running backs don’t have a long shelf life. However, Jones mentions they paid a running back top-money over 20 years ago and it turned out to be a great decision.
.@dallascowboys owner Jerry Jones explains the $90 million contract extension with @EzekielElliott: “I’m $100 million lighter as of this morning. Zeke has been arguably our best player… he’s an incremental part to our success.” pic.twitter.com/Tj8yFTnwTM
— CNBC (@CNBC) September 4, 2019
“Running backs are short-lived,” Jones added. “Although we had what I considered to be one of the top five greatest ones in Emmitt Smith and Emmitt ran the ball for 13 years. So you don’t have to have a four or five-year career to be a running back. On the other hand, Zeke allows us to create such problems for the defense, we can open it up to our passing, open it up for Dak Prescott.”
Along with the $90 million in new money, Elliott will also receive $50 million in guaranteed money, which is a record for running backs in the NFL. Overall, Elliott will earn $103 million the next eight seasons which will make him the first running back in the NFL history to earn over $100 million on a contract. He will return to practice on Wednesday and will play in the season opener against the New York Giants on Sunday afternoon.
In his three seasons in Dallas, Elliott has rushed for 4,048 yards and 28 touchdowns. He has led the NFL in rushing yards in 2016 and 2018 and he has led the NFL in rush yards per carry the last three years. So this contract Elliott signed was earned and now the Cowboys can focus on defending their NFC East title.
