“I’ve been the best WR in the NFL for two years and you’re still not gonna pay me more than Calvin Johnson? What the hell?”
The Dallas Cowboys are poised to place the franchise tag on All-Pro WR Dez Bryant if the team can’t reach terms for a new contract with him before free agency.
SEE MORE:
Five ‘creative midfielders’ Manchester United could sign to satisfy Louis van Gaal
(Video) GOAL! PSG 1-1 Chelsea – Cavani levels but where was the defence?
(Video) GOAL! PSG 0-1 Chelsea – Ivanovic with the precious away goal
According to Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones, the team is leaning towards giving Bryant the one-year franchise tag if no deal is reached to prevent the All-Pro playmaker from becoming an unrestricted free agent.
“We don’t ever want to give up on a long-term deal,” Jones said, via The Dallas Morning News.
“It’s something we worked on all of last year and it kind of cooled off once we got into the season… Things have a sudden way of getting kicked in and you start to get some traction on something. You go down that road and get that done. It’s dominoes.”
Bryant set a Dallas Cowboys record with a league-leading 16 receiving TDs in 2014, en route to his second straight Pro Bowl and a First-Team All-Pro selection.
The franchise tag would give Bryant a fully-guaranteed contract for one year before putting the Cowboys in the exact same situation next season. This year’s tag for WRs would be worth an estimated $12.8 million.
The issue for the Cowboys, however, is how to retain both Bryant and NFL rushing leader DeMarco Murray, who is also set to become a free agent and needs a long-term contract extension as well in order to stay in Dallas. The Cowboys can only use one franchise tag on one player in a given year.
Murray set a Cowboys single-season record with 1,845 rushing yards in 2014 and was named NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
COMMENTS