The first step in Dallas Cowboys team owner and general manager Jerry Jones' master plan was getting the team back above .500 after three seasons of 8-8 football. Mission accomplished. Dallas finished 2014 at 12-4. Now the next step for Jones is figuring out some way to re-sign both Dez Bryant and DeMarco Murray to keep the team's two most talented offensive weapons in Big D.
That's where things get a bit trickier.
Dallas is operating with a minuscule $7.4 million of salary cap space, according to OverTheCap.com. They could open up a bit more breathing room by releasing cornerbacks Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne, but that would create a glaring hole that needs to be filled as well.
Murray has already declined Dallas' offer of a four-year deal worth roughly $16 million. It appears as if he wants a top-dollar offer to stay with the Cowboys. Signing him to an ultra-lucrative extension while paying Bryant something like $13 million on the franchise tag would be an expensive pill to swallow for Jones and the Cowboys. And he knows it.
"You remember when that cap makes you poor and you wake up and have those days when you don't have the money and don't have the flexibility," Jones told Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News. "...If you can revisit how you felt, that will make you a little more prudent about this cap when you have had a lot of years when you really paid the piper."
Jones sounds like he's making a thinly veiled warning to fans not to expect both offensive studs back in uniform next season. The most likely scenario is that Bryant gets locked up while the team lets Murray, who has a lengthy injury history and is coming off 499 total touches in 18 games, walk in free agency.
