From the sounds of the most recent report, the July 15 deadline for franchise tagged players to negotiate new deals with their teams may serve to put enough pressure on the contract impasse between the Dallas Cowboys and wide receiver Dez Bryant to actually ensure a deal gets done.
Mike Fisher of 105.3 The Fan in Dallas reports that the Cowboys are now "very optimistic" of getting an extension done with Bryant sometime after the July 4th weekend, but prior to the July 15 deadline - so optimistic, in fact, that they're willing to take a "negotiation break" for the holiday weekend.
While Cowboys fans everywhere are probably screaming at their computer screens and furiously typing out emails to Cowboys owners Jerry and Stephen Jones to just get the deal done already and celebrate the holiday later, this certainly paints a much better picture for the team and Bryant than previous reports had seemed to indicate.
While Bryant had appeared at some Cowboys offseason work, likely in an effort to prove his loyalties remain with the team and that he wants nothing more than to be locked up on a new long-term deal with Dallas as soon as possible, rumors had swirled in the past two months that Bryant and the team may have actually been at serious odds over his contract demands.
In Nov. of last year, Bryant suggested the team shouldn't trust his loyalty, while at the same time reports emerged that the Cowboys and the Jones' were fearful of Bryant's off-the-field life.
Early last month, another report emerged that Bryant was so intent on seeing his contract extended that he was willing to skip Cowboys training camp and, more importantly, potentially even Week One of the 2015 NFL season. A few short days later, he reiterated that threat, claiming he was "serious," and indicating that it could last longer than Week One.
Most recently, the younger of the two Jones', Stephen, intimated that the team and Bryant were facing a "wide gap" in contract talks and that while players like Bryant and the Broncos' Demaryius Thomas were pointing to contracts given to players like Larry Fitzgerald and Calvin Johnson as a starting point in negotiations, those deals simply no longer matched the realities of the market.
In short, this is a stunning reversal if true and likely indicates that the Cowboys, already faced with the proposition of having to replace running back DeMarco Murray next season, had no interest in dragging out a situation they could simply make go away with a few bundles of cash.
