Ezekiel Elliott Re-Signing Indicative of Bigger Issue (That Has Haunted Cowboys for 20 Years)

Over the past twenty years, the Cowboys have been one of the most frustrating teams in the NFL due to their inability to succeed and win at a consistent level (especially in the playoffs) despite usually having more than enough talent on their roster to do so.

The best analogy I can think of to explain the Cowboy's past two decades is if you decided to give a novice driver a brand new Ferrari and you foolishly expected to get the Ferrari back in pristine condition without a scratch or bump. In relation to the Cowboys, the novice driver would be Jerry Jones. The owner of the Ferrari would be the Cowboys fans who have been expecting greatness out of a man who does not understand what is required to build a winning football team and has been using every excuse imaginable these past thirty years to avoid admitting he is not the football mastermind he pretends to be.

Jerry Jones Continues Crushing Cowboys Fans' Hopes

Earlier this week, Jerry Jones proved once again how he is nowhere near the football mind he makes himself out to be and makes fans wonder if he is even simply competent enough to continue to run the Cowboys. This scrutiny was all due to Jones's baffling decision to bring back former Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, , who has been on the market this off-season after his contract with the New England Patriots expired and the Patriots decided not to re-sign him, which was probably for good reason. The decision to bring back Elliott, who is now a running back well past his prime, proves how incompetent Jones, along with the rest of the front office, is when it comes to making moves that they think are best for the Cowboys.

There is no denying that during his prime, Elliott was one of the greatest Cowboys running backs in franchise history and one of the most fierce running backs in the league. Unfortunately for Elliott and the Cowboys, those days are long gone, and Eliott is currently a shell of his former self. He has not been able to rush for over 1,000 yards since 2021, a massive decline for a former two-time rushing yard leader at one point in his career.

His first and final season in New England was a disappointment overall, as he finished with a career-low 642 yards. That is an absurdly low amount of rushing yards for a starting running back, especially one who the Cowboys think will be able to help them remain in contention in a challenging NFC Conference.  To see where Eliott stands amongst other starting running backs in the league, only four other starting running backs had fewer total yards than Elliott to complete last season, and two out of those four missed significant amounts of the season.

Unfortunately for Cowboy fans like myself, moves like signing Elliott to a contract he does not deserve are nothing out of the ordinary and just one of many head-scratching decisions  Jerry Jones has made during his time as Cowboys general manager. Signing Elliott is the perfect answer to why the Cowboys have not been able to make it to the Super Bowl, let alone an NFC Championship game since 1995.

The most likely explanation for why Jones decided to bring back Elliott is because he eventually realized that after his mismanagement of the Cowboy's cap space, yet again, he would not be able to afford to sign a solid running back in this year's free-agent class. A frustrating mistake by Jones, but nonetheless, he could have somewhat redeemed himself by drafting a running back last weekend when he had a myriad of solid running backs to choose from. Instead, Jones decided to prioritize literally every other need for the Cowboys throughout the draft weekend and didn't take it upon himself to draft a single running back.

Due to Jones failing to either sign or draft a running back this entire off-season, he assumed the best option would be to bring back former fan-favorite Ezekiel Elliott due to the nostalgia value it could potentially get and possibly let him off the hook for not being able to sign a running back this offseason due to his constant mismanagement of the Cowboys cap space

Overall, Jones once again proved this week why the Cowboys will not have any legitimate success with him as the team's general manager. There is no doubt that Jones is one of the greatest businessmen in the history of the NFL because he is able to make the Cowboys one of the most relevant and profitable teams in the country even though they have produced nothing more than a mediocre product on the field for the past two decades. However the fact remains that Jones is not the best option to be running the Cowboys football operations and quite frankly the team will continue to remain in this state of perpetual mediocrity until Jones relieves himself of his current role of general manager.

As famous local DFW radio personality Craig Miller often states that "Jerry Jones, the owner, needs to fire Jerry Jones, the general manager."

This can't happen soon enough, and if Jerry is as serious as he claims he is about wanting to win another championship for the Cowboys, he must get past his Texas-sized ego and admit he is not the man qualified enough or knowledgeable enough to be the architect of a potential Super Bowl-winning team.

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