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FRISCO, Texas – Ezekiel Elliott admits it was important for him to be the highest paid half of the NFL.
"Because I believe I'm the best," said the Cowboys star Wednesday, shortly after her first practice session since signing an extension of $ 90 million over six years, including 50 millions of dollars guaranteed, according to sources.
Todd Gurley, of the Los Angeles Rams, had been the most demoted with $ 45 million guaranteed and an average salary of $ 14.375 million. Elliott, 24, was on contract until 2020 and was expected to generate $ 3.853 billion in 2019 and $ 9.09 million for the fifth-year option in 2020, bringing his total compensation to $ 5 billion. 2026 horizon to more than 100 million dollars.
The signing of this deal was short-lived after Elliott's first practice session with his team-mates in a scorching heat in anticipation of the opening of Sunday's season against the New York Giants. .
"The heat was a little rough today, but there is air conditioning in the AT & T stadium," joked Elliott. "So I mean, I'm just going to continue to see how I feel for the rest of the week."
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Elliott spent most of his summer in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, trying to simulate as much as possible football drills with a strength coach, a sports coach, other current players and the Temple member. Marshall Faulk.
"He is in very good shape," said Cowboys coach Jason Garrett. "He looks good, but he has not practiced with professional football players, so we'll see how he will put himself in his place.But it's a quick study.C & # 39; "He's a smart guy with a great football IQ so we'll just see where he is and adjust accordingly as we go."
The Cowboys will benefit from an alignment exemption for Elliott this week, but the team will have to change the alignment of the 53 players to play. Elliott said that comparing his return to the team on his return from a six-game suspension in 2017 is different because he had a full schedule for the off season, a training camp and eight action matches before accepting the league 's punishment.
But he also said that he could handle a sizable workload on Sunday.
"I think I'm just going to approach it as a normal week, you still have to be cool by Sunday," Elliott said. "It's a long season, so do not want to try to do too much and risk injury."
The Cowboys will be watching Elliott this week and hope he is honest with his physical condition. He returned to the last two games of the 2017 season and had 51 runs for 200 yards.
"You're just trying your best to gauge them and try to put the player, the team in the best position," Garrett said. "Obviously he was with us all through the off season, he missed the training camp, and in reality he has never played in pre-season games, so there's a lot of different factors to consider.
"The most important thing you do is get him back here and put him back to work, let him know how he's doing, look at him and decide how best you want him to be. To use to go from the front. " towards the front. "
When Elliott went to bed on Tuesday, he did not think that an agreement would be reached in time for it to result in Wednesday, but he had not yet considered the possibility to miss regular season games.
Elliott received a call stating that an agreement had been reached around 7 am ET.
Not an hour later, he was at The Star and seeing his teammates for the first time since June.
"Guys are just excited to see it." It was less like, "Oh, thank god, you're here, thank God, your contract is done", "center" Travis Frederick said. "That was, man, you missed me. I have not seen you in a month. It's weird not to have it around. It is as if one of your brothers had gone on a semester abroad and suddenly he came back. It's just a good meeting feeling. "
Elliott said he felt the support of his teammates during his stay, which helped him stay on track.
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"Calls, texting … I mean, one of my teammates told me not to come back without an agreement," Elliott said. "I mean, such support from this group of guys was all about saying it would have been more difficult if things had been reversed."
At the time of signing, Elliott had a guarantee of $ 28 million. The $ 22 million final guaranteed money is included in his base salaries of 2021 and 2022 on the fifth day of each league year.
Since joining the Cowboys as a fourth overall pick in the 2016 draft, Elliott is leading the NFL with 4048 rushing yards, even though he missed eight games. Gurley is second with 3,441 yards. In 2018, Elliott joined Herschel Walker as the Cowboys' only running back with more than 1,000 yards and 500 rushing yards in the same season.
He is the fifth player since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 to lead the league by rushing twice in his first three seasons. Emmitt Smith, a member of the Cowboys Hall of Fame, the NFL's best rusher, also completed the feat in 1991 and 1992.
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During the negotiations, the owner and general manager Jerry Jones said the teams did not need champions in a hurry to succeed and joked, "Zeke who?" after the rookie Tony Pollard had an impressive pre-season performance.
"These are just negotiations, you have to get there," Elliott said. "Was good."
Elliott has not spoken with Jones since the conclusion of the agreement. The owner was in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday. They will probably be speaking soon, with an official press conference next Thursday with Jones in North Texas.
Elliott has achieved his goal of being the highest paid half. Now the goal is to win the Super Bowl.
"I mean, I just have to go to the next level now," Elliott said. "That's what I'm trying to say."
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