Cowboys' Dez Bryant May Miss Week 1
It's being reported that Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant is contemplating missing the opening regular season game for the Cowboys if a contract of his isn't agreed to by the deadline of July 15th. As of right now Dez Bryant hasn't sign the $12.8 million franchise tag for 2015.
If Bryant doesn't sign it and decides to hold out the first game of the 2015 season it wouldn't be without precedent, especially in Dallas.
In 1992 former RB Emmitt Smith led the NFL in both rushing yards and rushing touchdowns, earning himself his third pro bowl and first All-Pro selection along with the Cowboys first Super Bowl Championship since 1978. Smith decided he wanted to get paid. After sitting out the first two games of the season and seeing the Cowboys fall to 0-2, jerry Jones decided to give Smith a contract of 4-years, $13.6 million, and the highest for a running back at the time. Fourteen games later Smith, again, led the league in rushing and another Super Bowl.
Fast forward to 2015 and Bryant feels the same way that Smith did. Bryant led the league in touchdown catches and the most receiving touchdowns since he came into the league in 2010. The Cowboys didn't win a Super Bowl last year, but with DeMarco Murray leaving to become a Philadelphia Eagle and Tony Romo getting up in age the Cowboys need Bryant, and he knows it.
These things happen in the NFL quite frequently. The franchise tag is something that sounds nice in theory (give a player a lot of money for one year) but becomes a lot more complicated when you realize that the NFL is a pretty brutal sport. Even though $12 million is a lot of money players would much rather have assurances for multiple years (and more money) than do a year-by-year contract.
Will Dez Bryant hold out all the way until week one? No, probably not. Odds are he'll say some things in the media, the Cowboys will leak a few things to the media and then before the season starts he'll sign a contract for something like 4-year, $50 million contract with $37 million guaranteed. Either that or he'll sign the $12.8 million tag because it's always nicer to have $12 million than to not have $12 million.