The Dallas Cowboys either think Dez Bryant is joking, or they don’t believe he has the gall to skip a regular season game or two, thus costing himself millions in the process.
The Cowboys are still motivated to sign Bryant to a long-term extension, but with only one month left to negotiate until the July 15 deadline — team executive vice president Stephen Jones said there’s a “wide gap” in the current receiver market that has yet to be bridged, during in an interview with Sirius XM NFL Radio.
“I’m not a good speculator, but I will say this is the tough side of our game – the side that the fans don’t probably love to talk about,” Jones said. “But there is a business side of it, and we’re doing what we can do, our goal ultimately being to sign Dez to a long-term contract – and I know Dez would like to have one. But this is an environment right now with a receiver market that’s not exactly easy to get your hands around.”
Jones is referring to what the NFL’s two highest-paid receivers, Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald and Detroit’s Calvin Johnson make – on par with the rest of the league.
Both those two guys make $15-16 million per year — so I don’t see what the problem is. Bryant isn’t a mid-level wide receiver, and is probably the second best in the league, behind Megatron.
“It’s been well-documented that both Fitzgerald and Megatron both got their deals based on their rookie contracts because they were high draft picks and the franchise tag dictated that,” Jones said. “But since then all receivers, the top ones, have pretty much been paid in the $11.5-12.5 million range, and there’s a big disparity there.
“I don’t think anyone quite knows what that market is, and that makes it difficult. I think once we figure out what that is, then there’s a way for us to get something done with Dez. But until that happens, it’s what teams think versus what players and their representatives think. There’s a wide gap right now.”
With wideouts including Demaryius Thomas, Julio Jones and A.J. Green looking for new deals, the Cowboys better figure it out in a hurry.