Tony Pollard Signing Deadline: How Much Should Cowboys Offer?

What the Cowboys' front office does contractually with Tony Pollard and his long-term future will tell us how they view the running back position ... in terms of the Dallas cap and the Dallas roster.

FRISCO - Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard is staying at The Star for at least one more season, the Pro Bowl running back having signed his franchise tag this spring. But now come more steps and more signals ... with the clock ticking as it regards Pollard staying in Dallas long-term.

Surely Pollard's additional desire is a long-term contract with Dallas. And the Cowboys are not in the business of letting Pro Bowl talent walk away. But NFL teams have until July 17 to sign tagged players to long-term deals. So while we know that the two sides have "touched base'' - negotiations at least of a sort - what we're about to find out amounts to three things ....

1 - What do the Cowboys, who lived the experience of failing to recognize "the devaluation of the running back'' with their massive Ezekiel Elliott contract - think of paying backs now?

2- What do the Cowboys think of their stable of Pollard backups? If Malik Davis or Ronald Jones or Rico Dowdle or Deuce Vaughn or Hunter Luepke can be central to Dallas' 2024-and-beyond future at running back - each of them doing it at literally one-tenth the cost of Pollard - why not let Pollard be one-and-done and then turn the page?

3 - While there is no denying Pollard's talent, how much does he want to "bet on himself''? If Dallas will not fork out the salary that Pollard is after in the coming days, does he grab whatever deal is on the table (especially assuming the guaranteed money is alluring) or does he excitedly hit the market next spring believing that he's a $10 million APY back?

In today's game ... Is any running back worth $10 million APY? Given the Cowboys' results with Elliott from in his significant extension (six years, $90 million with $50 million guaranteed) - and through no real fault of Zeke's - do you dip into that same well? Or do the Kansas City Chiefs provide the Super Bowl-winning model by using an assortment of non-big-names to affordable effect?

It's been suggested that Dallas might offer "TP'' a three-year, $27 million deal. CowboysSI.com cannot report that as fact; we've heard nothing about that. But we do look around the league at the type of money other running backs are getting, and we see Devin Singletary getting $2.7 million and we see David Montgomery getting $6 million and we see Zeke and Leonard Fournette and Kareem Hunt getting nothing at all.

Would Pollard accept an APY number closer to Montgomery's new number (the aforementioned $6 million) than Zeke's old number ($15 million)?

Precisely what the Cowboys' front office does with Pollard and his long-term future will tell us how they view the running back position ... in terms of the Dallas cap and the Dallas roster.

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