Oakland Raiders: 3 trades that could send Ezekiel Elliott to Oakland
Rumors have swirled around who might serve as the best possible suitor for an Ezekiel Elliott trade. This week, the Oakland Raiders have been loosely linked as one of those suitors. But how much would it cost and is it worth it for the silver and black?
As the 2019 NFL season draws closer, one media story continues to circulate around the entirety of the league: Ezekiel Elliott and his holdout against the Dallas Cowboys.
Holdouts are, by no means, a new storyline that happens with NFL players. Careers in football, for the most part, are relatively short, and players who show elite talent are interested in maximizing their earnings at the peak of their value. Owners of these teams, meanwhile, are trying to exploit cheap rookie deals.
This isn’t anything new. Players are pushing back. And until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached, none of this will change.
Ezekiel Elliott is a somewhat interesting case in that he’s doing it with not one but two years left on his contract, essentially putting him only halfway through that cost-effective deal that the Cowboys have exploited in recent seasons.
Elliott’s talent isn’t to be questioned. He’s consistently been one of the top running backs in football over his first three seasons in the NFL. He’s led the league twice in rushing yards.
He’s had the highest yards per game in each of his first three seasons. He’s been selected for the Pro Bowl twice. He was chosen as a First-Team All-Pro his rookie year.
Beyond that, he has become a feature aspect of a respectable Dallas Cowboys offense. Last season, while leading the league with 304 rushing attempts and 1434 yards, he led his own team in receptions as well with 77.
There is no reason to doubt why Zeke values himself so highly.
The Cowboys are in a somewhat tough situation that threatens to get tougher. After a successful offseason to bolster the roster, the Cowboys are poised to make a legitimate run into the playoffs.
But they can’t waste time.
As more information seems to come out each day, there is now speculation that Elliott may hold out for up to six weeks of the season.
The Cowboys may be able to get away with a game or two without him, but as soon as something goes wrong — if it goes on — all the attention will turn back to giving Elliott the contract he’s after.
The likelihood is that Elliott will stay put and the Cowboys will roll with what they have. But it hasn’t stopped all sorts of media speculation on where he might end up if Dallas decides he’s not worth waiting around for.
Enter the Oakland Raiders.
Or, more specifically, enter wild media speculation that the Raiders might — or even should — make a move to bring him to the silver and black.
It began with a report from a less-than-reputable opinion site. Then it was picked up by a troll on Twitter who duped the community into thinking he was Ian Rapoport. These sorts of things move quickly.
But among all of the speculation, the never-ending Skip Bayless rants on FS1, the opinion pieces laced with hot takes, and the updates on a holdout soap opera that we seem to get every year in a different form, there hasn’t been a clear-cut answer to “What’s it going to take to land Ezekiel Elliott?”
Well, I have a couple of answers to that question. And we’re going to break down exactly why the Oakland Raiders should stay away — far away — from any attempt to tantalize the Dallas Cowboys.