Jerry Jones expects Ezekiel Elliott to miss Week 1 game vs. Giants

Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones is expecting star running back Ezekiel Elliott to miss games in the regular season due to his contract holdout.

Elliott, 24, has two years and $12.8 million left on his contract. The Pro Bowl back is set to earn $3.8 million this season if he reports and $9 million next season.

However, Jones does expect that Elliott will return at some point.

This shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise, especially after Jones previously said that the Cowboys season was a “marathon”, and that they’d need Elliott “when we get to the playoffs”.

Jones, a master salesman (and some might argue a master media manipulator), has played the game well thus far.

The big-talking owner previously threw a dagger at Elliott’s camp with the “Zeke who?” quip that angered Elliott and his agent, Rocky Arceneaux. That came after an impressive performance from backup running back Tony Pollard.

Elliott recently reminded said in a Maxim interview that even Emmitt Smith didn’t play his whole career with the Cowboys.

“Let me be real clear about something: I don’t negotiate with players,” Jones said. “I share with players my thoughts about our team and about why I have the position I have and to give them information as they’re assessing their decision. My discussion with players is something nobody, no agent, can have [because of] my perspective as the architect of the team. So I’m trying to get any player to understand why I’m making the decision I am. That’s not negotiating. That’s simply explaining the position. Negotiating is if I step over there and start saying, ‘I’ll give you this for that.’ I don’t do that with players.”

The Giants head to Jerry World in Arlington on September 8 to take on the Cowboys for the season’s first game.