Ezekiel Elliott’s holdout lasting longer makes Eagles clear NFC East favorites
By Dan Parzych
The longer the Dallas Cowboys are without Ezekiel Elliott, the better chance the Philadelphia Eagles have at winning the NFC East.
For weeks, the Philadelphia Eagles have been monitoring the Ezekiel Elliott situation with the Dallas Cowboys, as the holdout for the starting running back continues heading into the final week of preseason action.
With all due respect to other teams such as the Washington Redskins and New York Giants, but if the Eagles are worried about anyone in the NFC East, it’s going to be the Cowboys.
From Elliott’s perspective, it’s easy to understand the running back’s frustration since he’s only scheduled to earn $3.85 million in base salary for the 2019 season.
Take this into consideration with the 5,247 yards from scrimmage with 34 touchdowns dating back to the 2016 season, why wouldn’t Elliott be fighting for a new contract from the Cowboys?
Unfortunately for Dallas, the Los Angeles Rams made things a little more difficult last summer when they decided to reward Todd Gurley with a whopping four-year, $60 million extension since Elliott has made it clear he wants to be the highest paid running back.
Does this mean the Cowboys will eventually give in to Elliott’s demands?
At this point, it’s difficult to tell since Jerry Jones doesn’t seem willing to pay Elliott that kind of money, especially since other players such as Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper will eventually need new deals as well.
But at least with the holdout lasting longer than originally expected since the start of Week 1 is right around the corner, the longer Elliott is absent in Dallas, the more of an advantage Philadelphia has at winning the NFC East title.
On paper, the Eagles are stacked with enough high talent on both sides of the football in which they could very well finish as one of the top teams in the NFC for a third year in a row, but also that’s always easier said than done.
Plenty of teams, including the Cowboys, will be standing in the way of the Eagles throughout the 2019 season, and after watching Dallas win both contests last year, it’s clear winning the division will be far from a guarantee.
Even if Elliott returns at some point in the next couple of weeks, there will be concerns over him returning to his usual ways after missing all of camp and preseason.
Luckily, the Eagles don’t have to worry about any of this drama like the Cowboys are dealing with for Elliott, and can continue focusing on the upcoming 2019 campaign since the last thing Philadelphia needs is any unnecessary distractions.