With the football season quickly approaching, the pressure was on to end Ezekiel Elliott's holdout. As the NFL reports, the situation has finally come to an end, and Elliott has signed on to a six-year, $90 million extension with the Dallas Cowboys. This means the running back will take in $103 million over eight years, with at least $50 million guaranteed.
When it was first revealed Elliott had been in talks with the Cowboys to get his contract extended and improved, it was thought his contract would be similar to Todd Gurley's. However, this deal has eclipses Gurley's and officially makes Zeke the top-paid running back in the league by nearly $14.4 million per year.
Elliott will be returning to practice immediately now that he's gotten the extension he wanted.
Reports indicated on Saturday (Aug. 31) that Elliott and the Cowboys were finally looking to reach an agreement on a new contract. The longstanding stalemate between the two had been going on since the beginning of August, with Zeke willing to sit out the season until he got a long-term contract extension with the team.
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The situation arose after Elliott saw other running backs with talents similar to his inking record-setting deals with the NFL: Le'Veon Bell signed a four-year, $52.5 million contract with the New York Jets in March, and Todd Gurley recently signed a four-year extension with the Los Angeles Rams worth $60 million.
Last week, sources explained that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had made peace with the idea of not having Zeke on the field until October. Clearly, he had a change of heart.
After the signing was announced, Jones appeared on CNBC and talked about what the signing means to the team, calling Zeke "an incremental part to our success.”