Before Monday, few inside or outside the Cowboys organization believed that receiver Dez Bryant would miss regular-season games, at more than $750,000 each under his franchise tender of $12.8 million for the year. We’d previously said that, if he’s going to miss games that count, he needs to say so. After Monday’s tweet from Bryant that he won’t show without a new deal, more people on the outside are starting to believe that he’ll give up game checks.
It’s still unclear whether Dez means he’ll simply skip training camp and the preseason (and still get his full $12.8 million) or whether he intends to miss regular-season games. If he’s willing to miss regular-season games, would he be willing to miss one or two just to prove his point, or would he miss as many as possible?
Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, he can sign the franchise tender and return at any time up until the Tuesday after Week 10. After that, he is prohibited from playing for the Cowboys or anyone else in 2015.
If he shows up only for the last seven weeks of the season, Bryant would still make more than $5.25 million for the year, which is more by far than he made in any year under his five-year rookie deal. So while it’s easy to look at this on one hand as more than $750,000 that goes away every week forever, Bryant could regard at it as an opportunity to make more than twice as much as he earned in any one season to date for playing in fewer than half of the games.
It’s also an opportunity to send a very clear message, in advance of next year’s franchise-tag dance with the Cowboys. As of 2015, the Cowboys don’t believe Dez Bryant’s threat to miss regular-season games. As of 2016, they will -- if he misses the full 10 weeks.
They’ll take him even more seriously if he misses more than 10 weeks.
Bryant could choose to miss the whole season and still earn a 20-percent raise over the franchise tender in 2016. Some (i.e., me) believed that sitting out the entire season would simply kick the can into 2016, shifting his $12.8 million tender forward a year without an increase. Article 10, Section 15(c) of the labor deal says otherwise; if Bryant sits out the full year, he’s still entitled to a 20-percent increase in the tender if the Cowboys use it again in 2016.
In other words, Bryant can boycott the entire season and still qualify in 2016 for a $2.56 million raise under the franchise tag, which is still more than he ever made in any one year under his rookie contract.
There’s also a kicker under Section 15(c), about which I either didn’t know or had forgotten. If Bryant sits out the full year and if the Cowboys tag him again in 2016, the compensation another team would owe the Cowboys from signing him to an unmatched offer sheet would drop from two first-round picks to a first-round pick and a third-round pick. Which would make other teams more inclined to consider signing him to an offer sheet in 2016.
Before Dez would miss 16 games, he’d have to be willing to miss 10 weeks. If he misses 10, he’ll miss both games against the Giants and both games against the Eagles, along with games against the Saints, Patriots, and Seahawks. Which, with quarterback Tony Romo and owner Jerry Jones have only so many chances at glory rediscovered remaining, could make the Cowboys very nervous about letting Wednesday pass without signing Dez to a long-term deal.
UPDATE 8:00 a.m. ET: There’s some confusing language in Article 10, Section 15(c) regarding whether Bryant would get the 20-percent increase on his tender if he doesn’t play at all in 2016. An argument could be made that he doesn’t get the 20-percent increase, but the language is sufficiently vague and convoluted to invite a grievance aimed at interpreting it. Before that becomes relevant, Dez would have to sit out the entire year. If he does, however, he’d be assuming the risk that he ultimately would get only the base receiver franchise tender, as adjusted for 2016.