Comments:
1. In the Gordon thread, it has been posted that he
might need to report for as little as a single game,
might need to report before week 9, or
might need to report before week 13. This bears on your item A for Elliott. I'm not sure which of these interpretations is correct, and I suspect that there is ambiguity, which could mean his agent may feel compelled to interpret this issue conservatively, in which case he may feel he needs to play 4-8 games minimum in each season.
2. You also phrased this as him having to play. He doesn't have to play, he has to report. If he reports by the right deadline and the team does not play him, it would not bear on his free agency.
3. The team can fine him $40K per day of training camp he misses and 1/17 of his salary for each preseason and regular season game he misses. That is a lot of money, especially next season, that will also likely factor into his decision about how long to hold out. If the team upholds the fines and he reports in time to play just 6 games this year, he would forfeit $40K x 20 days + $226,655 x 14 games (4 preseason + 10 regular season) = $3,973,171 for this season... more than his entire 2019 salary of $3,853,137... so he would potentially have to play 6 games for free. Same type of scenario in 2020, but he would stand to forfeit more than twice as much, depending on how many games he held out. Maybe this doesn't factor in to anyone's thinking, since they may assume the team will not uphold the fines.
Add it all up, and I think it is unlikely he misses many games, if any, this year.