Dallas Cowboys Dez Bryant Rumors: Jerry Jones Addresses Messy Contract Dispute

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant led the NFL with 16 touchdown catches in 2014, and now wants to be paid like he's one of the NFL's top pass-catchers. Right now Bryant has the option to play in 2015 as the top-paid wide receiver-along with Demaryius Thomas of the Denver Broncos-but he won't get the long-term security he covets.

Bryant was slapped with the franchise tag this offseason, which will pay him $12.823 million for this year. Bryant wants a long-term extension though in the mold of Calvin Johnson's seven-year, $113 million pact with the Detroit Lions.

Currently, Cowboys executive Stephen Jones said there's a wide gap between the two sides. "This is an environment, especially with [the wide receiver] market, that it's not easy to get your hands around," Stephen Jones said. "The top wide receivers have been paid in the $11 million to $12 million range and that makes it difficult."

There have been comments from Bryant's camp that missing the first regular season game is in play if he doesn't receive the long-term contract he craves. There is a July 15 deadline to reach that point, or else they will have to wait until after the season ends to re-open talks.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has now spoken, and it seems like an effort to cool the flying rhetoric.

"If we're still in a franchise situation with Dez, I have no doubt that he'll be leading the way against the New York Giants," Jones said. "We just know how competitive Dez is and how much he wants to beat the Giants and how much he wants to support his teammates."

Further comments showed that even Jerry Jones is loathe to completely cave to Bryant's exorbitant demands.

"I am sympathetic to it and understand it completely," Jones said. "And I would like nothing more than to have long-term security with Dez. Now that's where you get right down to it. We've worked together great for five years ... The fact that he's as substantive as he is relatively speaking to the way he came in the league, the criticism that he was taking, I was taking, is really rewarding. We've got more. There's more ahead. And he's, by the way, got a chance to be better in my view in the future. But we've got to get it all done to everybody's satisfaction."

[Star-Telegram]