Stephen Jones is being awfully cryptic about Dez Bryant

Thursday night The Star, Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, was holding the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award ceremony which meant an opportunity for the Cowboys brass to talk about the team.

We’ve heard all about how the Cowboys are planning to franchise tag DeMarcus Lawrence if they can’t reach a long-term deal before March 6th (they likely won’t), but there are a few other big-time names to watch this offseason.

There’s of course guard Zack Martin, but nobody is concerned that his long-term deal won’t get done. The name on everybody’s minds, it is a Cowboys offseason after all, is wide receiver Dez Bryant. And Stephen Jones was asked about him.

In the hit sitcom Community the character Britta once explained the “complisult”. A complisult is a statement that begins as a compliment but ends as an insult, sort of like a backhanded compliment but with a way cooler name. This feels like a complisult.

Of course, that depends on who you ask because not everybody would see that ending part about understanding business interests as an insult. I’d imagine Dez Bryant might.

This isn’t the first time this offseason (as short as it is) that Stephen has publicly commented on Dez Bryant. He called him a distraction to a degree back in January.

“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.”

So in less than 30 days Stephen Jones has referred to Dez Bryant as a distraction at times and then implied that Dez Bryant has to be accountable to the Cowboys in a business sense, all but saying Dez Bryant needs to take a pay cut because his production isn’t living up to his price tag.

Things certainly do feel like they’re trending in the direction of Dallas asking Dez to re-negotiate. It’s rare that this thing happens with nobody involved being offended, which suggests that our proverbial boat could be headed for rocky waters. Unless the Cowboys can get it done without “disrespecting” anybody.

It seems as if Stephen Jones is using every public opportunity he can to lay the clues for what lies ahead. Will everyone involved make it through this hypothetical final destination?

That remains to be seen.