FRISCO, Texas (AP) — The Cowboys released running back Ezekiel Elliott on Tuesday, a quiet end to a Dallas career that started with two rushing titles in three seasons but faded quickly from there.
The move was the end of Elliott's second stint with the team that drafted him fourth overall in 2016. The Cowboys dumped him in a cost-cutting move after the 2022 season.
This time, Elliott's release could give the 29-year-old a chance to be a late add for a playoff team looking for veteran help at running back.
The same thing happened last season with four-time Pro Bowler Dalvin Cook, who was cut by the New York Jets and played for Baltimore in a wild-card win. Cook is on Dallas' practice squad right now.
“Out of respect and appreciation for Zeke and wanting to provide him with an opportunity to pursue any potential playoff participation possible, we are releasing him from the Cowboys roster today,” owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. “As I have said many times previously, Zeke’s impact as one of the greatest to ever play with the Star on their helmet will never change and is etched in our record books and history forever.”
Elliott spent one season in New England before returning to the Cowboys on a one-year deal, the club hoping there might be something left in a player who averaged 1,351 yards per season and 97 yards per game his first four seasons.
Instead, Elliott never really challenged fifth-year player Rico Dowdle for the role of lead back, and Dowdle went on to become the franchise's first undrafted running back to rush for 1,000 yards.
Dowdle has 1,007 yards going into the season finale for the Cowboys (7-9) against playoff-bound Washington (11-5) on Sunday. Elliott had just 74 carries for 226 yards with a 3.1-yard-per-carry average, all career lows.
Off-field drama marked Elliott's first two seasons with the Cowboys, including a six-game suspension in 2017 over domestic violence allegations. There was more this season, when he was left at home for a game at Atlanta for disciplinary reasons. He played the next eight games.
Elliott had two rushing titles and had led the NFL in yards rushing per game in all three of his seasons when he held out all of the 2019 preseason before signing a $90 million extension. His production never came close to matching the expensive contract.
The 2016 All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowler finishes his Dallas career with 1,955 carries for 8,488 yards and 71 touchdowns, third on the club in all three categories behind Pro Football Hall of Famers Emmitt Smith, the NFL's all-time rushing leader, and Tony Dorsett. Elliott has 9,130 yards and 74 touchdowns overall.
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Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott works out prior to an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The new Congress convenes Friday with one major task at hand — the election of the House speaker.
But current Speaker Mike Johnson’s weak grip on the gavel threatens not only his own survival but President-elect Donald Trump’s ambitious agenda of tax cuts and mass deportations as Republicans sweep to power in Washington.
With opposition from his own GOP colleagues, Johnson was holed up in the Capitol on the eve of the vote, working to sway the hardline holdouts. A flop by Johnson could throw Monday's congressional certification of Trump’s 2024 election victory into turmoil without a House speaker. Even backing from Trump himself, usually a sure bet for Republicans, is no guarantee Johnson will stay in power.
“I think he’s banking a lot on people liking him," said Sarah Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University.
"But you know I think we’re still down to: What does he need to give away in order to get the speakership? And then how long can he keep it?”
What was once a ceremonial day with newly-elected lawmakers arriving to be sworn into office, often with family and friends in tow, has evolved into a high-stakes vote for the office of House speaker, among the most powerful elected positions in Washington.
While the Senate is able to convene on its own and has already elected party leaders — Sen. John Thune as the Republican majority leader and Sen. Chuck Schumer for the Democratic minority — the House must first elect its speaker, a role required by the Constitution, second in the line of succession to the president.
Congress has been here before, when it took Republicans nearly a week and 15 rounds of voting to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker in 2023, a spectacle unseen in modern times. McCarthy was then dumped by his party, a historic first, but he was also part of a long list of GOP speakers chased to early exits.
The stakes are higher this year as Trump prepares to return to the White House with the House and Senate in GOP control and promising to deliver big on a 100-day agenda.
“He's the one that can win right now,” Trump said about Johnson at a New Year's Eve party that drew other GOP leaders to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Trump endorsed Johnson but also said “others are very good, too,” a nod to “Make America Great Again” allies in the president-elect's orbit.
Johnson, of Louisiana, has been working diligently to prevent defeat, spending New Year's Day at Mar-a-Lago as he positions himself alongside Trump. The speaker often portrays himself as the “quarterback” who will be executing the political plays called by the “coach,” the president-elect.
"We have to stay unified," Johnson said on Fox Business late Thursday.
Johnson said he thinks he will lose perhaps only a single detractor, and hopes to win the speakership on the first round of balloting. He said he hasn't yet asked Trump to make calls to the holdouts. “My conversations with my colleagues are going great."
But Johnson also warned that without a House speaker there would be a "constitutional crisis" heading into Jan. 6, when Congress by law is required to count the electoral votes for president, weeks before Trump is set to be inaugurated Jan. 20.
“We don't have any time to waste, and I think that everybody recognizes that,” he said.
Johnson commands one of the slimmest majorities in modern times, 220-215, having lost seats in the November election. That leaves him relying on almost every Republican for support in the face of Democratic opposition.
Heading into Friday he did not have the full support needed.
Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy is among the most notable holdouts, an unflinching member of the Freedom Caucus who lashed into Republican leadership’s handling of the year-end spending bill for failing to cut spending and adhere to House rules.
“Something MUST change,” Roy posted on social media. He said he remains undecided on the speaker's vote for Johnson, but added “my desire is to give him grace" in hopes they can deliver on the GOP agenda.
One almost certain hard no is Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., but other far-right Republicans, including some who helped topple McCarthy, have kept their views close.
"There’s a lot of discontent,” said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., as lawmakers left for the Christmas holiday.
What's unclear is what other concessions Johnson can make to win support. Two years ago, McCarthy handed out prime favors that appeared to only weaken his hold on power.
Already, Johnson has clawed back one of those changes, with a new House rule pushed by centrist conservatives that would require at least nine members of the majority party on any resolution to oust the speaker — raising the threshold McCarthy had lowered to just one.
“I think the holdouts are going to have to realize that, listen, Trump is right all the time," said Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, exiting the speaker's office late Thursday. “Just know that Trump is right all the time, it’ll help you make a decision real simple.”
In many ways, Johnson has no choice but to endure political hazing by his colleagues, as they remind him who has leverage in their lopsided relationship. He was a last-ditch choice for the office, rising from the back bench once other leaders failed in the aftermath of McCarthy's ouster.
Democrats expected to cast votes for party leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
Jeffries has said Democrats will not help save Johnson, as they have in the past with their votes when he faced a threat of removal.
The speaker's election is set to dominate the opening of the new Congress, which also brings a roster of history-making members.
In the Senate, two Black women — Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland — will be sworn in, the first time in the nation's history two Black women senators will serve at the same time.
Sen.-elect Andy Kim of New Jersey also is making history as the first Korean American to join the chamber.
In the House, Sarah McBride is the first openly transgender person in the Congress.
And Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who recently suffered a fall overseas and underwent hip replacement surgery, will make her own return to Washington, a reminder of the power she wielded when Democrats last held the majority.
But the pomp of the day may dim if the speakership election slogs into multiple rounds of balloting.
“I hope that we can just vote for him on that first ballot, and then go move on to the business of the people,” said Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., who backs Johnson.
Said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., "A large portion of that will be up to Donald Trump.”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., followed by reporters, walks to the House Chamber at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
