Dez Bryant contract extension ‘a real possibility’ before or during Cowboys’ season
The Dallas Cowboys could make their best offensive playmaker and one of the top receivers in the NFL, Dez Bryant a Cowboy through the prime of his career as the team’s vice president Stephen Jones said it’s ” a real possibility” the two parties come to an agreement before or during the regular season.
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“We’re certainly taking a long look at that,” Jones said during an interview on 1310 The Ticket, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “As we do with any great player in our organization who’s nearing the end of a contract, we start to look at it and see how we might structure something going forward. I think that’s a possibility, yes.”
Bryant, 25, is entering the final year of his rookie contract he signed when the team selected him in the first round out of Oklahoma State that will pay him $1.78 million for the 2014 season and count $5.37 million against the team’s salary cap.
Bryant is coming off a career-best 93-catch season with 1,233 yards and a career-high 13 touchdown receptions in 2013.
Bryant has earned a contract commensurate with the top receivers in the NFL based on his production over the past two seasons, but it remains to be seen how the Cowboys should structure a contract for the 2013 Pro Bowl selection.
The Cowboys have limited salary cap space this season and offering Bryant a substantial signing bonus with at least $20 million in guaranteed money could be a risky proposition, but Bryant tells ESPNDallas.com the possibility for a hometown discount.
“I’m loyal to the squad,” Bryant said. “I’ve always been. Me and my agent are going to talk about [a hometown discount]. We’ll talk about it. You know, this is big. This is life changing. Like I said, I’ve done everything asked of me, and we’ll see what happens.”
It’s hard to imagine Bryant and his agent leaving too much money or years on the table, but Dallas wants to keep him in a Cowboys uniform and Bryant doesn’t want to play anywhere else, so this should only be a matter of time that the two parties come to an agreement on a big contract that could pay him more than the $12 million per year that the Miami Dolphins gave to Mike Wallace last season.