With wide receiver Dez Bryant — or those close to Dez Bryant — threatening to boycott regular season games, the Cowboys are using their own pulpit to illustrate the difference in bargaining positions.Via the team’s official website, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said there was still “wide gap” in negotiations with their franchise-tagged wide receiver.
“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 on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “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.”
With wideouts including Demaryius Thomas, Julio Jones and A.J. Green looking for new deals, ascertaining market value is hard.
“I don’t think anyone quite knows what that market is, and that makes it difficult,” Jones said. “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. . . .
“At the end of the day it’s a business, and when the time comes and there’s something that we can do that makes sense for both sides, I know that’ll happen – because they’re motivated to do it, we’re motivated to do it. But right now there’s just too big a divide.”
And until we get closer to the July 15 deadline for tagged players to reach long-term deals, there will doubtless be more noise from both sides as they try to bridge that gap.
Source: PFT.com
Author: Darin Gantt
Photo: Matthew Emmons, US Presswire
