When asked about Dez Bryant on Sunday night, Jason Garrett, La’el Collins and Travis Frederick all had the same line: “He’s on our football team.”
Yes, he is, but for how long? That remains a question that perhaps only Jerry Jones can answer.
Garrett said he has not met with the receiver and doesn’t know if Jones has. But it sounds as if a decision is coming and soon.
The Cowboys begin their offseason program April 16, and that seems a logical deadline considering any season-ending injury occurring on team premises would guarantee his $12.5 million salary. It also makes sense that Bryant would want to know his status sooner than later.
The Cowboys are expected to ask Bryant to reduce his base salary to lower his salary cap number of $16.5 million for 2018. Bryant, 29, has not had a 1,000-yard season since 2014 and his last 100-yard game was November 13, 2016.
Dallas signed Allen Hurns and Deonte Thompson in free agency and still could draft a receiver. The Cowboys have shown interest in Alabama’s Calvin Ridley and SMU’s Courtland Sutton among others.
“I have not met with Dez,” Garrett said at the Cowboys’ Taste of the NFL event. “Dez is on our football team, and again, we talked about some of the moves we made at the receiver position, and they’re designed to create competition there. We think that’s going to help everybody on our team.”
Bryant’s teammates have heard the talk about his future being in doubt, but they haven’t listened.
“I stay out of it,” Frederick said. “I don’t know anything about it. I don’t think anybody knows anything about it. We just go on like things are, and that’s what we do. Whatever happens happens obviously. I love Dez. I love him as a teammate, and I love him as a person. I wish him the best, and I just hope everything gets settled.”