The Dallas Cowboys have a potentially combustible situation on their hands with electrifying wide receiver Dez Bryant.
Bryant, seeking a long-term deal, hasn't made much in the way of waves thus far this offseason, even going so far as to appear for one session of Dallas' recent OTA work, but it seems, according to the latest report from Chris Mortensen of ESPN, that could be on the verge of changing this summer.
"Dez Bryant is contemplating not reporting to the Dallas Cowboys for the regular-season opener unless he is signed to a long-term contract by July 15, according to sources familiar with the receiver's negotiation strategy."
July 15, of course, is the deadline by which franchise-tagged players can sign new deals with their respective teams. If the two sides fail to agree on a new pact before then, Bryant must either player 2015 under the $12.823 million wide receiver tag or not play at all.
"I'm just not going to comment about that," Bryant's agent Tom Condon said, via Mortensen. "Our goal is still to get something done on a long-term basis by the deadline."
Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones suggested last week that the team would make one final push to sign the mercurial wideout prior to July 15.
"We know he will be a Cowboy this year," Jones said, via Todd Archer of ESPN. "If he ends up playing this year under the tag we will go right back to work again next year. Now would we like to get a long term deal on him? Of course we would. We'll work hard to do that and I'm sure we'll make a push at some point and see if we can make it work. If not, hopefully he will understand it's difficult to make a deal at this point and he'll come in and get ready to play."
Except according to Mortensen, the Cowboys have not made a new proposal to Bryant since before the 2014 season.
While Mortensen was unable to reach Bryant for comment on the situation, a source said that it was possible Bryant would consider "pulling an Emmitt Smith," presumably meaning sitting out the first game or two of the 2015 season, just as the Hall of Fame running back once did in 1993.
Smith eventually got a big new deal after the Cowboys opened the season with a pair of losses and suddenly became much more willing to acquiesce to his demands - it's unlikely Bryant would see the same results, but nothing is out of the realm of possibility these days, especially considering Dallas will already be trying to replace one of their offensive stars from last season, running back DeMarco Murray, and likely won't be excited at the proposition of making that a two-fold effort.
Last year, Bryant caught 88 passes for 1,350 yards and 16 touchdowns en route to his second Pro Bowl selection.
