5 Key Cowboys Who Will Be Free Agents After 2023 Season

Tony Pollard

This one won't surprise anyone considering how public the contract negotiations and even franchise tag designation were, but Tony Pollard's deal is also up at the end of the year.

This puts Dallas in a very interesting position that we haven't seen in a while.

Jerry was more than willing to overpay Ezekiel Elliott, but he'd committed a lot more to Zeke in the first place, and he was a proven workhorse. And while the NFL had already shifted away from an RB-focused league at that stage, there were still some people who thought the pass-heavy shift was a fad.

Now we have Pollard, who's never handled true RB1 duties and who wasn't the high draft pick Elliott was. He'll have just one year to prove himself in that role before he's up for a contract, and we've seen the open market be absolutely ruthless to running backs this offseason. It will also be a hyper-competitive

It also projects to be a hyper-competitive free agent market next offseason, with Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, Saquon Barkley, Dalvin Cook and Austin Ekeler all set to be free agents (for now).

There aren't many franchises willing to spend big on running backs anymore, and that means there could be some seriously talented players forced to sign at a discount next offseason. Jerry knows this, and it's not hard to see why he wasn't too worried about extending Pollard.

Even if you don't buy the Deuce Vaughn hype as a potential future RB1, it's hard to be too upset about Pollard being an unrestricted free agent next offseason.