Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant swore on his "beautiful babies" that if he didn't receive what he deemed to be an acceptable long-term contract offer from the only franchise he's ever known prior to July 15 - the final date by which franchise tagged players can negotiate new deals with their teams and after which a player has the option only to play under the tag or not play at all - he would "not be there," presumably meaning a holdout of unspecified length.
As Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk noted in the wake of Bryant's Twitter announcement, it would likely behoove Bryant to simply state plainly and clearly whether or not that means he plans to miss actual regular season games.
While it's still unclear at this point whether Bryant just means to skip training camp and the regular season and then start collecting game checks, per Florio, Bryant could be willing to miss regular season games all the way up to Week 10, which, per the Collective Bargaining Agreement, is the greatest length of time he can miss and still suit up in 2015.
"If he shows up only for the last seven weeks of the season, Bryant would still make more than $5.25 million for the year, which is more by far than he made in any year under his five-year rookie deal. So while it's easy to look at this on one hand as more than $750,000 that goes away every week forever, Bryant could regard at it as an opportunity to make more than twice as much as he earned in any one season to date for playing in fewer than half of the games," writes Florio.
"It's also an opportunity to send a very clear message, in advance of next year's franchise-tag dance with the Cowboys. As of 2015, the Cowboys don't believe Dez Bryant's threat to miss regular-season games. As of 2016, they will - if he misses the full 10 weeks."
It seems Bryant may be able to sit out the entirety of the 2016 season if he so chooses and still earn a 20-percent increase on the wide receiver franchise tag, meaning a bump from the 2015 version - $12.8 million - to the 2016 version - likely to be something just over $15 million - though it seems the CBA language is vague on the matter.
In the end, the biggest thing for fans of the Cowboys is that Bryant - assuming he isn't actually facing the "money problems" the team reportedly believes he has - could potentially miss up to 10 regular season games next season depending on just how far the mercurial and seemingly hard-headed weapon is willing to take this.
