The agent for Cowboys pass-rusher Anthony Spencer said he wasn’t going to fight the Cowboys over the difference between a franchise tag as a linebacker and defensive end, but that he planned to look at defensive line deals when negotiating a long-term contract.
Spencer was tagged for the second straight year as a linebacker, guaranteeing $10.6 million on a one-year deal. A defensive end tag this year was worth $11.175 million.
Though he’ll be playing defensive end in the team’s new 4-3 system, the tag is based on the position he played the previous year.
“They have the right to franchise as a linebacker,” agent Jordan Woy told Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “But he will be a defensive end. It would be fair to look at contracts of players that play that position.”
He said he didn’t think the Cowboys tagged Spencer again to trade him, and that his client “wants to stay in Dallas but he also would like to have a long-term deal.”
Not fighting over the $600,000 difference might help keep negotiations friendly, as Woy tries to talk the Cowboys into a bigger deal with much more in the way of guarantees.