Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant is seeing dollar signs.
Slated to become an unrestricted NFL free agent, Bryant and his representatives along with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the team brass have been hammering away at a contract extension which makes financial sense for both sides and keeps the electrifying and physical wide receiver in Big D for a long time.
The only potential problem at present is that Bryant's idea of financial sense may not match Jones' and the rest of the Dallas front office.
"I'm very confident in my mind that we are going to get something done. But we just have to see. It's a process. We're talking about big money. We have to see what happens," Bryant said recently after a charity basketball game in Arizona, according to NBCDFW.com.
Bryant, after the Cowboys made him the 24th overall selection in the 2010 NFL Draft, has become a consistent and nearly unstoppable offensive threat.
This season, en route to helping the Cowboys attain their first playoff berth - and victory - since 2009, Bryant amassed 88 receptions for 1,320 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Bryant said that he'll always hold a special place for the team that drafted him, before spewing the ultimate NFL football player, "I'm gonna get mine"-ism - it's a business.
"Regardless, I'm a Cowboy," Bryant said. "But it is what it is. It's business. I am a free agent. I'm very confident that something is going to happen, something is going to get done, and have these Cowboys fans excited for a long time. I'm a Cowboy at heart. It's Cowboys forever."
It's Cowboys forever - as long as the money is right.
With Bryant and running back DeMarco Murray slated to hit the open market in March, the Cowboys are faced with some difficult offseason decisions.
While the Cowboys will almost assuredly slap Bryant with the franchise tag should the efforts to hammer out a deal prove fruitless, ensuring he'll be a Cowboy for at least one more season, the results of this contract negotiation could bear watching and prove a precursor to the real length of his tenure in Dallas.
