Jerry Jones: “Not really” a deadline to get Ezekiel Elliott contract done

Owner and general manager Jerry Jones sat down with Shan and RJ of 105.3 The Fan this past Wednesday morning to talk about the upcoming season. Of course, the contract negotiations regarding Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, and Amari Cooper dominated the topics on the segment.

With the season just a week away, Ezekiel Elliott is still currently holding out in hopes of getting a new contract. Jones was asked if there was deadline in place to make sure that a deal for Ezekiel Elliott could be in place. His answer was pretty simple:

“Not really, not really at all”.

He later went on to mention that the team has played without star players in the past due to injuries, suspension, or other holdouts. He also mentioned that if Ezekiel Elliott did happen to miss games that them team would play “well, really well”.

The Cowboys have a relatively easy start to the season with a home game against the New York Giants, an away game at the Washington Redskins, and a home game against the Miami Dolphins. The Cowboys are 2-0 when facing the Giants and 1-0 when facing the Redskins without Ezekiel Elliott. Those three games should be some of the easier games on the schedule, and the team should be able to win those with or without Ezekiel Elliott, but they also cannot afford to drop one of those games with a tough end of the year schedule.

In all reality, for Zeke Elliott to be able to play, and play up to his standards against the Giants on September 8th, he would likely need to report to The Star no later than Thursday of next week. While that may not be a deadline for the contract, it could be the deadline for Elliott’s availability for week one.

Even though it seems like Jerry and Stephen Jones are prepared not to have Zeke available in Week 1, they sometimes say things that make you wonder. For instance, just yesterday Jerry Jones said this:

They might have him on the field, but will they have him on the field in Week 1?