Will Dez Bryant take a pay cut after all? It’s all about “respect” says one source

At the end of the 2017 season, Dez Bryant said that he was not going to take any kind of pay cut from the Dallas Cowboys. Bryant’s production has been falling the past few years while his cap hit is a very high $16.5 million. So when the idea of re-working his contract to take a pay cut was brought up, he had this to say:

“I haven’t heard no talks about that, but if it comes -- well, I don’t know,” Bryant said on taking a pay cut, before adding: “Probably not. Hell, no, man. I believe in me.”

At the time, you might have thought that wold be the end of that since the Cowboys, meaning Jerry Jones, never criticized Bryant or talked about his contract in a negative light previously. But Stephen Jones was playing a slightly different game, laying the ground work for something else to happen.

“Of course we pay Dez a lot of money, and he knows that. He’s as aware of it as anybody. … He knows when you get paid that kind of money there’s high expectations in terms of the productivity. … Those are all things we have to look at as a team, as an organization when we start to put our team together next year.”

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“The other thing that we all see and it is certainly visible to anyone who watches our games, watches our sideline, is Dez is certainly a fiery guy who plays with a lot of emotion both on and off the field. Sometimes that can be a distraction. It can be a distraction for Dez, it can be a distraction for other teammates. And we just have to really get our hands around when you put all the full body of work together where that’s headed.”

That was certainly a mild shock to the system and led most observers to believe that some kind of re-negotiation could be forthcoming and if no agreement is reached then a possible release. It’s all speculation at this point, but the drumbeat has gotten louder.

Will there be some kind of standoff between the two sides at some point this offseason? NFL observer Jane Slater recently posted her thoughts on the subject. She’s been a very good source on the Cowboys recently, so we should at least entertain what she has to say.

And she says they probably will renegotiate a change in contract, and that as long as Dez feels he is not being disrespected, they will come to an agreement. She says Dez has told her that it’s not about the money, but as long as he feels respected he has a sense of loyalty to Jerry Jones. Slater feels pretty confident they will work out a new deal. Our own DannyPhanton talked about this in a previous article.

You can listen to all of what Slater had to say below. Also of note, she talked about Tyron Smith. He isn’t getting offseason surgery, but is instead doing a new workout regime that includes things like Pilates and yoga, and that his back and knee feel great.