Ezekiel Elliott will not play in 2019 without a new contract, per report

The case of will he, won’t he continues with Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott. After officially becoming a holdout at the onset of training camp, the rusher has been training in Cabo instead of with his teammates.

There’s been a lot of noise back and forth, with (unsurprisingly) Jerry Jones making lots of comments about how a featured back isn’t going to make the difference in his team making a Super Bowl run.

We’ve been waiting to hear whether or not Zeke planned to continue his holdout into the preseason and regular season and we seem to have an answer. Josina Anderson is reporting that the RB will not play in 2019 without a new deal. She did follow that up to clarify that it’s likely a deal does get done to avoid that outcome, but we’ll have to wait and see.

As BLG notes, it looks like the Cowboys are between a rock and a hard place with what to do with Zeke. Not only do they have to figure out ways to pay both Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper, but they need to account for Elliott’s off-field risk and on-field production in their offer.

There’s also plenty of reasons for Elliott to think a holdout is a good idea, particularly with regards to how Dallas has handled running back contract years in the past.

You hate to see it.