Cowboys potentially moving on from Ezekiel Elliott this offseason

Rumors have been circulating around Dallas as reports have come out that the Dallas Cowboys could finally be moving on from seven-year veteran Ezekiel Elliott.

Zeke has seen a significant decline in production over the past several years, and this season, the Cowboys coaching staff made clear their preference of Tony Pollard as the starting running back, especially later in the season. Elliott was only able to find value in short-yardage situations and pass blocking.

With that said, Elliott is due to make $18 million next season the sense around the building is that Jerry Jones and the Dallas front office will only be willing to keep Zeke if he takes a substantial pay cut. The Cowboys have been rumored to be willing to cut Elliott and absorb his $11.8 million dead cap hit for next year but would likely prefer to keep him on a much more reasonable deal.

It was reported earlier that Zeke’s agents will try to determine his value to other teams at the NFL Scouting Combine before making any decisions regarding his salary for next season. Given Zeke’s lack of production and burst of late, it is hard to imagine a team would be willing to take him on at his current price.

Elliott has seen a steady decline in yards per game each of the last seven seasons after leading the league in rushing twice, including as a rookie. He ran for over 1,350 yards in three of his first four seasons. In the three years since then, he has reached 1,000 yards once and has averaged less than 60 yards per game twice.

In 15 games this past season, Zeke carried the ball 231 times for 876 yards (a career-low 3.8 yards per carry) and 12 touchdowns.

Reports have said that the Cowboys are likely to place the franchise tag on Tony Pollard, essentially forcing the Cowboys’ hand on Elliott, as it would be unwise for them to invest this much money in two running backs. Rumors have also circled around Dallas’ chances of drafting a running back in this year’s draft, even as high in the first round if they have a chance to select Texas star tailback Bijan Robinson, the consensus top back in this draft.

Gallery Sports will have more on this story when information becomes available.