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With free agency on the horizon, it’s smart not to chance any potential injury.
But Bryant’s not going anywhere in free agency, either, because of the death grip owner Jerry Jones and the Cowboys have on him and his future.
The Cowboys will sign Bryant to a long-term contract extension this spring or they will use the franchise tag on him, guaranteeing him roughly $13 million in 2015.
Jones has said as much several times over the last year.
And now that the season is over and the Cowboys are focusing in earnest on securing their free agents for next year, Jones remains firm on that point with Bryant.
The fifth-year receiver, who has blossomed into one of the league’s top game-breakers, has indicated in the past he would be unhappy with the franchise tag, though people close to him acknowledge he is resigned to its inevitability.
"Let me start off by saying that 99 percent of the time the player is disappointed because that means he didn’t get a long-term deal done," Jones said Tuesday on the first day of Senior Bowl practices. "There’s no one that I know that can’t understand why a player wants to play with a long-term deal in place."
It should be noted the Cowboys will not resort to the franchise tag because of off-the-field concerns with Bryant, as has been reported before.
It's a negotiating ploy, plain and simple.
The Cowboys are not so concerned about Bryant off the field that they don't want him on the team.
They have prioritized re-signing him over running back DeMarco Murray, the reigning NFL-rushing king who was nominated as the team's Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award winner.
And there is no question Bryant will get paid. It's just a matter of how much.
Before the season, the Cowboys reportedly already offered him a 10-year contract worth more than $100 million, including $20 million in guaranteed money.
Bryant is looking for top-three receiver money, which would pay him at least $13 million annually.
Again, a $13-million cap figure on the franchise tag next year is not a bargain either.
But that's the leverage the Cowboys will use to get Bryant to come to their terms on a long-term deal or the hammer they will use to keep him.
“Make no mistake, the franchise is a serious part of your strategy as to a critical part of your management duties – and that is, how do you keep your team together," Jones said. "And how do you keep it together at the top while you’re putting on at the bottom? The franchise designation allows you to do that, it gives you a shorter time frame to think about an individual player. And obviously the individual player is a tremendous contributor, or he wouldn’t be considered for the franchise. But it’s a vital, vital tool."
The Cowboys used the tag just four times since the NFL approved it in 1993.
Tackle Flozell Adams got the tag in 2002 before signing a long-term extension the following season. Safety Ken Hamlin got the tag in 2008 before signing a lucrative extension before the season and defensive end/outside linebacker Anthony Spencer was tagged in 2012 and 2013.
Jones said the tag worked as it should in each case and for the times they didn't use it, the threat of it had its desired impact.
“(The few times the Cowboys used it) is a misnomer, because you had the ability to use it," Jones said. "That’s sometimes more valuable than using it. But that tool is probably the highest value—to have it as a tool, to have it to basically be able to know that you’ve got it there so you can go ahead and move. We’ve got a classic year of what the franchise can mean and where it can mean. Certainly, it’s not necessarily a given that it’ll go any place."
What's certain right now is Bryant isn't going any place. Not to the Pro Bowl. And definitely not anywhere in free agency because the Cowboys will sign him to a long-term deal or lock him up with a franchise tag.
It’s their hammer and they plan to use it.
Clarence Hill covers the Cowboys for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. All quotations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Read more Dallas Cowboys news on BleacherReport.com
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