More important for the 2019 Dallas Cowboys: Dak Prescott or Ezekiel Elliott?

A couple of weeks ago, the Westgate Sportsbook released their odds for the 2019 NFL MVP, and three Cowboys made the 74-player strong list, Ezekiel Elliott (60-1), Dak Prescott (100-1), and Amari Cooper (200-1).

MVP awards are handed out to the players considered most valuable to their teams or their leagues, and taken at face value, the Westgate MVP Odds seem to suggest that Elliott is more important for the Cowboys in 2019 than Prescott.

Of course, if you’re the wagering type, you can always go odds shopping, and you wouldn’t have to look far to find a sportsbook offering the same 50-1 odds for both Elliott and Prescott.

Regardless of the specific odds for each player, the question raised by both sportsbooks is this: Is Dak Prescott or Ezekiel Elliott the more important player for the 2019 Cowboys?

There are teams, like both New York teams, where the running back is a clearly better player than the quarterback, and therefore probably more important for team’s success. But these teams are the exception. In fact, one could argue that in the pass-happy NFL, the quarterback is always the most important player on a team, regardless of who the running back is.

But that may not be the case in Dallas, at least not if a recent series of Tweets by Bryan Broaddus of DallasCowboys.com is anything to go by:

Todd Gurley is the highest-paid running back in the league with an annual contract value a little over $14 million. Elliott is threatening to hold out of camp and is probably looking for (and will almost certainly get) a $15+ million contract. Dak Prescott will get a $30+ million contract. That alone should provide a hint as to which player is more important, but some might argue that those contract values simply reflect market dynamics, and not the real value of a player to the team.

Over to you: Who do you think is more important for the Cowboys’ success in 2019?