The Cowboys took cornerback Byron Jones with their first round pick last Thursday, a move that came after several weeks of speculation about whether the team would try to get veteran corner Brandon Carr to take a pay cut from his scheduled $8 million salary.
Carr’s agent has said that his client won’t take a pay cut to remain in Dallas, but the cornerback himself was less forthcoming over the weekend. Carr said that his contract falls into the category of things he won’t discuss in public, adding that he is looking forward to working with Jones and that he doesn’t relate the rookie’s arrival to his contract situation.
“I say we’ve got a young guy, drafted a guy, a defensive back and they thought highly of him,” Carr said, via the Dallas Morning News. “I’m looking forward to having him in the room with us and grooming him to get ready to play. I’m still here. I’m here until told otherwise. That’s my philosophy. At the end of the day, if I’m playing football then I’m going to give my all for whoever I’m playing for.”
Ultimately, any decision about a pay cut is going to come down to whether Carr and his camp believe that they can sign elsewhere for more money than the Cowboys are offering him for the coming season. At this point in the offseason, there aren’t a lot of teams looking to splash cash on veteran free agents and that may wind up playing into Dallas’s hands if things come to a head in the coming days or weeks.