DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Cowboys are reuniting with running back Ezekiel Elliott after agreeing to terms on a contract with the former two-time rushing champion, a person with knowledge of the deal said Monday.
Elliott returns to the Cowboys a year after they let him go in a cost-cutting move. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the agreement was pending a physical.
The Cowboys acknowledged during the draft last weekend that they had recently met with Elliott and his representatives.
Dallas didn't draft a running back after moving from its starter each of the past two seasons, and owner and general manager Jerry Jones said he thought Elliott was still a starting-caliber back.
Elliott rejoins a team that includes Rico Dowdle, Elliott’s teammate from 2020-22, and second-year players Deuce Vaughn and Hunter Luepke. Dallas also added journeyman Royce Freeman this offseason.
Elliott, who will turn 29 just as the Cowboys report for training camp in California in July, spent last season as the backup to Rhamondre Stevenson in New England but started the last five games when Stephenson was injured.
Elliott won rushing titles in two of his first three seasons with the Cowboys and is the third-leading rusher in franchise history with 8,262 yards. He trails two Pro Football Hall of Famers — all-time NFL rushing leader Emmitt Smith and Tony Dorsett.
Tony Pollard, a fourth-round pick by Dallas in 2019, replaced Elliott last season but didn't have an impact to match his $10.1 million salary playing on the franchise tag. Pollard signed with Tennessee in free agency.
In 2016, Elliott teamed with quarterback Dak Prescott to create a dynamic rookie pairing that led the Cowboys on an 11-game winning streak and the top seed in the NFC playoffs.
Prescott then edged out Elliott for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors after the Cowboys lost to Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay.
Elliott never matched the 1,631 yards rushing from his rookie season. His second year was marred by a two-month court fight with the NFL over a six-game suspension involving domestic violence allegations. Elliott served the suspension nine games into the season after losing an appeal.
The 2016 All-Pro still led the NFL in yards rushing per game in his second season, then won his other rushing title with 1,434 yards in 2018.
Elliott missed the offseason and training camp in 2019 in a contract holdout, finally joining the Cowboys during the week before the season opener after signing a $90 million, six-year extension.
While Elliott scored 22 touchdowns combined over the final two seasons of his first Dallas stint, he surpassed 1,000 yards just once in three years after signing the expensive extension.
Elliott rushed for 642 yards and three touchdowns in what ended up being coach Bill Belichick's final season with the Patriots in 2023. Elliott visited the Cowboys in Week 4, gaining just 16 yards in New England's 38-3 loss.
While they won 12 games for the third consecutive season in 2023, the Cowboys missed Elliott's powerful running style in short-yardage situations.
Dallas is in flux with its offensive line, having to replace two starters. Three of Dallas' eight draft picks last weekend were offensive linemen. Elliott's return, however, would bolster the club's pass protection.
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FILE - Dallas Cowboys' Ezekiel Elliott runs during the second half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Arlington, Texas. The Dallas Cowboys are reuniting with running back Ezekiel Elliott after agreeing to terms on a contract with the former two-time rushing champion, a person with knowledge of the deal said Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ron Jenkins, File)
FILE - New England Patriots running back Ezekiel Elliott (15) speaks during a news conference after an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 24, 2023, in Denver. The Dallas Cowboys are reuniting with running back Ezekiel Elliott after agreeing to terms on a contract with the former two-time rushing champion, a person with knowledge of the deal said Monday, April 29, 2024.(AP Photo/David Zalubowski, FIle)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon said Thursday that humanitarian aid will soon begin flowing onto the Gaza shore through the new pier that was anchored to the beach overnight and will begin reaching those in need almost immediately.
Sabrina Singh, Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters the U.S. believes there will be no backups in the distribution of the aid, which is being coordinated by the United Nations.
The U.N., however, said fuel imports have all but stopped and this will make it extremely difficult to deliver the aid to the more than a million Palestinians in critical need of food and other supplies after seven months of intense fighting between Israel and Hamas.
“We desperately need fuel,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said. “It doesn’t matter how the aid comes, whether it’s by sea or whether by land, without fuel, aid won’t get to the people.”
Singh said the issue of fuel deliveries comes up in all conversations with the Israelis.
The U.S. military finished installing a floating pier off the Gaza Strip early Thursday, and officials were making final checks before trucks begin driving onto the shore to deliver pallets of aid.
The pier project, expected to cost $320 million, was ordered more than two months ago by U.S. President Joe Biden to help starving Palestinians as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting prevent food and other supplies from making it into Gaza.
Fraught with logistical, weather and security challenges, the pier project is not considered a substitute for far cheaper deliveries by land that aid agencies say are much more sustainable.
The boatloads of aid will be deposited at a port facility built by the Israelis just southwest of Gaza City and then distributed by aid groups.
U.S. officials said Thursday as much as 500 tons of food will begin arriving on the Gaza shore within days and that the U.S. has closely coordinated with Israel on how to protect the ships and personnel working on the beach.
But there are still questions on how aid groups will safely operate in Gaza to distribute food to those who need it most, said Sonali Korde, assistant to the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, which is helping with logistics.
“There is a very insecure operating environment" and aid groups are still struggling to get clearance for their planned movements in Gaza, Korde said. Those talks with the Israeli military “need to get to a place where humanitarian aid workers feel safe and secure and able to operate safely. And I don’t think we’re there yet.”
Fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants on the outskirts of the southern city of Rafah as well as Israel restarting combat operations in parts of northern Gaza have displaced some 700,000 people, U.N. officials say. Israel recently seized the key Rafah border crossing in its push against Hamas.
Pentagon officials say the fighting isn’t threatening the new shoreline aid distribution area, but they have made it clear that security conditions will be monitored closely and could prompt a shutdown of the maritime route, even just temporarily.
Already, the site has been targeted by mortar fire during its construction, and Hamas has threatened to target any foreign forces who “occupy” the Gaza Strip.
The “protection of U.S. forces participating is a top priority. And as such, in the last several weeks, the United States and Israel have developed an integrated security plan to protect all the personnel," said Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, a deputy commander at the U.S. military's Central Command. "We are confident in the ability of this security arrangement to protect those involved.”
U.S. troops anchored the pier Thursday morning, Central Command said, stressing that none of its forces entered the Gaza Strip and would not during the pier's operations. It said trucks with aid would move ashore in the coming days and "the United Nations will receive the aid and coordinate its distribution into Gaza.”
The World Food Program will be the U.N. agency handling the aid, officials said.
Israeli forces will be in charge of security on shore, but there are also two U.S. Navy warships near the area, the USS Arleigh Burke and the USS Paul Ignatius. Both are destroyers equipped with a wide range of weapons and capabilities to protect American troops offshore and allies on the beach.
The British logistics ship RFA Cardigan Bay will also provide support, Cooper said.
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani confirmed that the pier had been attached and that Israeli engineering units had flattened ground around the area and surfaced roads for trucks.
“We have been working for months on full cooperation with (the U.S. military) on this project, facilitating it, supporting it in any way possible,” Shoshani said. “It’s a top priority in our operation.”
The U.N., U.S. and international aid groups say Israel is allowing only a fraction of the normal pre-war deliveries of food and other supplies into Gaza since Hamas' attacks on Israel launched the war in October. Aid agencies say they are running out of food in southern Gaza and fuel is dwindling, while USAID and the World Food Program say famine has taken hold in Gaza’s north.
Israel says it places no limits on the entry of humanitarian aid and blames the U.N. for delays in distributing goods entering Gaza. The U.N. says fighting, Israeli fire and chaotic security conditions have hindered delivery. Under pressure from the U.S., Israel has in recent weeks opened a pair of crossings to deliver aid into hard-hit northern Gaza and said that a series of Hamas attacks on the main crossing, Kerem Shalom, have disrupted the flow of goods.
The first cargo ship loaded with food left Cyprus last week and the cargo was transferred to a U.S. military ship, the Roy P. Benavidez, which is off the coast of Gaza.
The installation of the floating pier several miles (kilometers) off the coast and of a causeway, which is now anchored to the beach, was delayed for nearly two weeks because of bad weather that made conditions too dangerous.
Military leaders have said the deliveries of aid will begin slowly to ensure the system works. They will start with about 90 truckloads of aid a day through the sea route, and that number will quickly grow to about 150 a day. But aid agencies say that isn't enough to avert famine in Gaza and must be just one part of a broader Israeli effort to open land corridors.
Because land crossings could bring in all the needed aid if Israeli officials allowed it, the U.S.-built pier-and-sea route “is a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Scott Paul, an associate director of the Oxfam humanitarian organization.
Under the new sea route, humanitarian aid is dropped off in Cyprus where it will undergo inspection and security checks at Larnaca port. It is then loaded onto ships and taken about 200 miles (320 kilometers) to the large floating pier built by the U.S. military off the Gaza coast.
There, the pallets are transferred onto trucks, driven onto smaller Army boats and then shuttled several miles (kilometers) to the causeway anchored to the beach. The trucks, which are being driven by personnel from another country, will go down the causeway into a secure area on land where they will drop off the aid and immediately turn around and return to the boats.
Aid groups will collect the supplies for distribution on shore.
Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Julia Frankel in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
US military says Gaza Strip pier project is completed, aid to soon flow as Israel-Hamas war rages on
US military says Gaza Strip pier project is completed, aid to soon flow as Israel-Hamas war rages on
In this image provided by the U.S. Army, soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary) and sailors attached to the MV Roy P. Benavidez assemble the Roll-On, Roll-Off Distribution Facility (RRDF), or floating pier, off the shore of Gaza on April 26, 2024. The U.S. expects to have on-the-ground arrangements in Gaza ready for humanitarian workers to start delivering aid this month via a new U.S.-backed sea route for Gaza aid. An official with the U.S. Agency for International Development tells the AP that humanitarian groups expect to have their part of preparations complete by early to mid-month. (U.S. Army via AP)
