Dez Bryant has no plans on leaving Dallas. The wide receiver is currently awaiting a new contract from the team and while he stresses it is time for him to get paid, he is maintaining that leaving the Cowboys is not in his plan. Bryant is playing off the final year of his contract and is expected to sign a mega contract as a result, but questions remain as to whether that deal will be with Dallas or not regardless of what Bryant says about the contract talks.
Bryant will be a free agent come March if Dallas cannot get the contract negotiations taken care of. Bryant continues to say the right things to the media. He has stressed his desire to be a career player with the franchise. He wants to be one of the greatest Cowboys to wear the uniform. However, he normally follows that up with the fact that he wants to be respected in his next contract.
"Regardless, I'm a Cowboy," Bryant said, via NBCDFW.com. "But it is what it is. It's business. I am a free agent. I'm very confident that something is going to happen, something is going to get done , and have these Cowboys fans excited for a long time. I'm a Cowboy at heart. It's Cowboys forever."
The Cowboys have salary cap issues and there is no easy way to fix them. With several key players needs new deals, the likely answer would be to restructure the monster contract currently assigned to Tony Romo. However, that would mean most of his guaranteed money is on the back half of his contract which is not smart considering he is above 30 in age with two back surgeries on his resume.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones understands the constraints the team is under right now in terms of money. They must try and re-sign running back DeMarco Murray this year as well considering he was the biggest factor in the team's success. Murray, according to NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport, has already rejected one contract offer from the team and is ready to hit the open market.
The Cowboys have several defensive players needs new contracts. They must add another wide receiver to play tandem with Bryant and find potential replacements in the run game. Salary issues rules out deals for Adrian Peterson, but could open trades for someone like LeSean McCoy. Bryant has faith everything will work itself out, but the wide receiver could be singing a different tune if he does not like the numbers presented.
