The case to pay Dez Bryant... Next year
Dez Bryant is a man who is about to be paid big-time money by the Dallas Cowboys. Coming off his first Pro Bowl appearance, Bryant caught 93 passes for over 1,200 yards and 13 touchdowns last season and just happens to be entering a contract year. Here’s what I think the Cowboys should do: let Bryant play through his contract year, and pay him next off-season.
Why would I suggest this, when the preference is usually to lock up a guy like Bryant as early as you can to save money and to give the guy the security he’s earned?
The easiest argument to make here is one about the business of the NFL. The Cowboys don’t have to give him another contract until his current contract is up. A young man of 25 years ought to be given the opportunity to show how he can perform when his job is on the line and a big payday is on the horizon. Part of Jerry Jones’ job as the man who writes the checks is to give his players the proper motivation to give their all to the team, and history has shown us more often than not that when you give these young guys major contracts too early it will often backfire.
Another reason is this: coming off a 13-touchdown Pro Bowl season doesn’t give me a lot of reason to believe it will be cheaper to give Bryant a contract today than it will be in nine months during the next off-season. Plus, with the loss of Miles Austin in free agency and another year of aging for Jason Witten, Bryant is being asked to do a bit more in 2014 than he’s been asked to do before. Perhaps he seizes the opportunity and breaks out for 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns and you find yourself paying more next season, but there’s also the possibility that doesn’t happen and at the very least the team will have another season of game tape to properly price out Bryant’s abilities.
My final concern -and I can’t stress this enough- is that I still view Bryant as a work-in-progress. That’s a strange thing to say about a guy who is considered by most to be one of the top five wide receivers in the game today. I still think Bryant has a ton more upside potential, but unfortunately he also has a lot of downside potential. If he doesn’t dramatically improve his technique and fundamentals, I fear athletic deterioration as he ages will allow these new larger cornerbacks (Richard Sherman-Clones, as I call them) to really reduce what Bryant is able to do. Bryant has taken the league by storm with his undisciplined “Dez-Monster” approach, but I fear the gravy train is closer to the cliff than we all can truly appreciate unless Bryant is able to take on a more fundamentals-based approach.
The great news is that early off-season reports say that Bryant is showing signs of developing into a more polished receiver – something that has really never been reported before. My advice to Jerry Jones is that he give Bryant at least half a season to show that that’s truly the case. Even if it costs a little more money in the long run, we’ve seen all too often the folly of trying to get a bargain by inking large contracts before they’re really due.
Original Article:
http://www.cowboysaddicts.com/pay-dez-bryant-next-year/
