Ezekiel Elliott's absence at AT&T Stadium for the season opener is a possibility many Dallas Cowboys fans want to avoid imagining. However, this idea is slowly becoming reality as the countdown for the September 8 kickoff closes.

Over the past few days, Cowboys ownership was confident that it would be able to tie down the star running back to a new contract. However, Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk gave Cowboy Nation information they didn't want to hear. His piece revealed that the former Buckeye is still nowhere close to minting a deal with the team that drafted him fourth overall in 2016:

“You focus on the guys who are here and the guys who are available,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said Tuesday. “You are confronted with a lot of those situations over the course of the year. Hopefully, you have built your team in such a way that you can go with the next guy. We feel good about that next guy. We will have different injuries throughout the year. And we can’t say, ‘Aw, when is he coming back?’ You move on. You put the next guy in there.”

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Star offensive tackle Zack Martin echoed what his coach told the press:

“We’re going to play with what we’ve got, and what we’ve got is a damn good back in Tony Pollard,” right guard Zack Martin said, via David Moore of the Dallas Morning News. “Obviously, we want [Elliott] out here, but we’re prepared to get ready for Week One.”

Of course, the Cowboys would love to have Elliott back in the team. He's led the NFL in rushing during two of his three seasons in the league. He is averaging an insane 101.2 rushing yards per game and a respectable 30 receiving yards per game in his three years in Dallas.