Tony Pollard #20 of the Dallas Cowboys. (Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
NFL Rumors: Tony Pollard, Cowboys mutually motivated on new contract
The Dallas Cowboys have already made Tony Pollard their running back of the future. Now they just have to pay him like one.
Pollard signed his franchise tag earlier this offseason and is entering his fifth year in the NFL. The former fourth-rounder will serve as the Cowboys’ RB1 for the first time in 2023 after Dallas released Ezekiel Elliott to save cap space.
Coming off a broken leg injury in January, Pollard’s primary focus this offseason will be getting healthy, but his future long-term contract with the Cowboys no doubt looms in the back of his mind.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler noted there was mutual interest in getting an extension done, one that could get inked as soon as this year.
Fowler said on SportsCenter:
“If the Cowboys want to step up and try to do a long-term deal he’s certainly open to that. Nothing moving on that yet but there’s a lot of time before that July 17 deadline. Certainly, both sides are expected to reconvene and talk about a potential long-term deal.”
The main impetus for extending Pollard is to give the Cowboys more leeway in cap space and potentially sign more players before the 2023 season.
Bleacher Report recently hypothesized that Pollard could receive a three-year contract worth $27-30 million with $15 million guaranteed. Such a deal could give Pollard his $10.1 million salary, as guaranteed by the franchise tag, plus it would let the Cowboys distribute the running back’s cap hit over the next several years.
There’s little to no chance the Cowboys would consider giving Pollard a deal like Elliott’s six-year extension from back in 2019 — hopefully, Jerry Jones has learned his lesson. But signing the 26-year-old threat to a short-term deal could work in the franchise’s favor this season if they’re seriously about competing for a Super Bowl and want to patch up a few holes on the roster.