Cowboys Nation Mailbag: What about Taco Charlton and Ezekiel Elliott?

The 2019 regular season is now less than three weeks away and now is the time when we start getting down to the nitty-gritty. The “dress rehearsal” game is coming this Saturday as the Dallas Cowboys take on the Houston Texans and a lot of the 53-man roster will likely be decided after that game.

As we inch closer to the regular season, the contract status for the Dallas Cowboys’ newest version of the triplets and the construction of the 53-man roster will have even greater emphasis in the news.

Thanks for your questions this week. Let’s did into this week’s Cowboys Nation Mailbag.

How long until all of cowboys twitter completely turns on Zeke? Like immediately after pollards first long td run or????

— E.D.I.T.H. (@cashfeen) August 19, 2019

I guess it depends on what segment of Cowboys Twitter you’re talking about.

Contract situations and hold outs always create some tension within the fanbase. They expect players to show up for work as they do. You hear people talk about Elliott fulfilling the agreement of his contract. But what people don’t understand is that rookie contracts and the rookie salary scale was negotiated by players already in the league to avoid rookies making Sam Bradford type money. The veterans and to some extent the owners didn’t like the idea that rookies could hold out of training camp to negotiate their first contract.

So, when Ezekiel Elliott was drafted fourth overall in the 2016 NFL Draft, he was locked into a contract length (including a team option for a fifth season) and a salary and bonus for the length of that contract.

The other thing to consider is that Elliott is doing exactly what the collective bargaining agreement allows him to do. Though the Dallas Cowboys can fine him, Elliott is permitted by the CBA to seek a contract extension after the third season of his rookie contract, just like you saw Michael Thomas of the New Orleans Saints do earlier this summer.

I get that fans are frustrated by the idea of a player “not honoring his contract,” but in the NFL, that’s the way football goes. The owners don’t always honor the contracts they’ve agreed to, cutting a player with guaranteed money left on his deal because his play might have dropped off or simply because he doesn’t warrant the cap hit.

But as Mike Leslie of WFAA recently pointed out on Twitter, our jobs aren’t like NFL jobs.

There are a lot of folks that understand that there is a business side to all of this. The players, the coaches, and a large segment of Cowboys Nation all understand where Ezekiel Elliott is coming from. Even the “running backs don’t matter” truthers aren’t throwing Ezekiel Elliott under the bus for holding out for a new contract.

As I’ve said before, don’t get mad at Ezekiel Elliott or even the Dallas Cowboys for the current state of his contract negotiations. Get mad at the Los Angeles Rams for setting a precedent that Ezekiel Elliott is attempting to take advantage of.

Ezekiel Elliott is only doing what’s permitted by the CBA. Though the negotiations continue to drag on, there’s still three weeks left till the start of the regular season, which is plenty of time to get a deal done.

Until this holdout lasts until the regular season, you shouldn’t worry.

Actually John, I do have a question. I haven’t reviewed film from Saturday yet (that’s my Tuesday deal each week of the season), but your take on Taco? I thought he had maybe his best preseason game in some time. Enough to secure a spot?

— Marlon C Taylor (@MarlonCTaylor) August 19, 2019

Taco Charlton has done some nice things in the preseason thus far. He’s been able to create pressure, and by Bobby Belt’s splash metric, Taco Charlton is leading the team.

Cowboys leaders in disruptions (sack, TFL, QB hit, INT, PD, FF) through two preseason games:

1. Taco Charlton – 4
2. Donovan Olumba – 3
t3. Ricky Walker – 2
t3. Kerry Hyder – 2
t3. Trysten Hill – 2
t3. Joe Jackson – 2

— Bobby Belt (@BobbyBeltTX) August 19, 2019

Obviously, this isn’t the only way to evaluate talent, but it does give an indication that Taco Charlton has been good this preseason. I’ve long believed that Taco was going to make the 53-man roster for the sheer fact that he was a first-round draft pick. That may not be a good enough reason for some, but he’s a player that the Dallas Cowboys won’t give up on lightly. He’s doing enough at this point in the preseason to warrant another year.

Cutting Taco Charlton in 2019 actually costs you money. It would cost the Dallas Cowboys roughly $3.5 million in 2019,  but they could save $1.3 million in 2020. It’s not likely that the Cowboys will pick up his fifth-year rookie option, which would be for 2021. Financially, the only move that would make sense is a trade, which would cost the Dallas Cowboys only $1.3 million in dead money.

While I think Taco Charlton is a player that is destined for the 53-man roster, with reports that DeMarcus Lawrence and Tyrone Crawford are about to be activated from the physically unable to perform (P.U.P) list, it may come down to a numbers game at defensive end.

Players like Dorance Armstrong, Joe Jackson, Kerry Hyder, and even Jalen Jelks may have something to say about Taco Charlton’s spot on the 53-man roster, but I believe they give him another year to prove he’s worth retaining.