Dallas Cowboys COO Stephen Jones sounds like he may be as relieved by the eventual outcome of the Dez Bryant contract negotiations - five-years, $70 million, $45 million guaranteed - as the rest of Cowboys Nation. While Jones is likely relieved because the new pact means Bryant will be terrorizing opposing defenses as a member of the Cowboys offense for at least the next five seasons, it also sounds like he's just relieved because of the difficult nature of the negotiations.
"I think it's one of the hardest ones," Jones said recently, while appearing on The Hardline on KTCK - AM, via DallasNews.com. "As we mentioned, (we've) been pretty consistent in referring to this negotiation as a very difficult one because of the market. You had two players who, two receivers, you had some really big contracts several years ago that were coming off the old rookie wage scale and because of the structure of the contract who were due to make some big numbers under the franchise tag. It really pushed the teams to try to find the deal that they could do and still keep the players. So it was tough to get your hands around that as it compared to what historically was going on in the receiver market. So it did make it very difficult. I think everybody certainly had great negotiating points but at the same time it was something that did make it very difficult to get your hands around what the top receivers in our league are going to make as we go forward."
Calvin Johnson's contract - seven-years, $113.45 million, $53.5 million guaranteed - was continually touted as the starting point in negotiations for Bryant and Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas. In the end, it likely had little impact on talks for either receiver other than being an unattainable goal for two young athletes hopeful of cashing in to as big an extent as possible and thus dragging out the process further than need be.
While some old-time Cowboys fans may point to something like the Emmitt Smith negotiation in 1993, which led Smith to missing the first two games of the regular season, as talks that were potentially harder than Bryant's, it is difficult to know from the outside just what it took to see the deal get done.
In the end, both Jones and the Cowboys and Bryant seem to have come out looking good - Bryant got a guaranteed figure that totals more than what two years of the franchise tag would have amounted to and the Cowboys got to lock up an elite offensive weapon
"More than anything it's great for Dez but most importantly great for our team that we get this behind us and move forward. This has obviously taken some time," said Jones. "It's probably 12 to 15 months in the making, and Dez has been patient and I applaud him for that. This is one of the harder deals to do because of the discrepancies out there in the market. It wasn't something that was easy to get done, but he was patient. I do think this is a big positive for us, hell be there at training camp and ready to roll and obviously a big part of what we do as a football team in terms of not only what he does on the field but what he brings in terms of his intensity and his passion for the game of football."
While it's probably a bit of a factual inaccuracy for Jones to suggest that Bryant was "patient" throughout the negotiations, the rest of what he says is true.
Bryant brings ample talent and ability to the Cowboys cause, but perhaps even more importantly, he brings an intensity and a desire to win that's palpable every time you watch him take the field.