The roller coaster ride continues…

With just 12 days until the Dallas Cowboys will host the New York Giants in AT&T Stadium, Ezekiel Elliott is still in Cabo and not on the Cowboys active roster. As Elliott holds out, the pressure to get him a new contract and get him back in the building is constantly rising. While Elliott has little to no leverage in these contract negotiations, the Jones family seems to still believe that getting Zeke under a new contract is the best approach.

A report from Jonathan Shipman and Mike Fisher of 105.3 The Fan, suggests that the Cowboys have recently inched closer to a market-setting deal for Elliott ahead of the Cowboys fourth preseason game.

FRISCO – Holdout running back Ezekiel Elliott is in receipt of a new contract extension offer from the Dallas Cowboys that a source close to the negotiations tells us would put his new annual salary “close to the Todd Gurley range.

With Elliott holding out two years early, getting an extension close to Todd Gurley’s would be a huge win for him; he is slated to make just under $4M in 2019, and just over $9M in 2020. The Jones’ have stayed strong on their sentiment that they will not be setting the running back market with a new extension, but from the reports coming out, they continue to inch closer-and-closer by the day.

So if the new contract is that close, what’s the hold up? Guaranteed money is the problem.

Part of [Zeke’s] desire includes surpassing Gurley’s other contractual numbers ($60 million total with $45 million guaranteed); two sources tell us that Dallas has less of a problem with that first number than it does with the latter.

In other words, the Cowboys – who view Gurley’s contract as an outlier and a mistake – do not want to guarantee Elliott $45 million.

One of the sides will eventually have to break, but as of today, the roller-coaster ride is still moving.

— BLOGGING THE BOYS