Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sent a blunt message to defensive end DeMarcus Ware on Monday night: Take a pay cut or take a hike.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Jones said Ware's prospects of returning to the Cowboys in 2014 are muddy.
The 31-year-old Ware is scheduled to make $16 million, and sportsrumoralert.com reported that the Cowboys are $25 million over the cap. Ware has 117 career sacks over a nine-year Dallas career, but his numbers have declined the last two seasons.
His tackles, however, have been in decline since 2010, and his sack totals have gone down each of the past two seasons. In 2010, Ware had 66 tackles and 15.5 sacks, but by 2013, Ware had career lows with 40 tackles, 6.0 sacks and failed to force a fumble for the first time in his career.
"There's no question when you are where we are on the cap, even though we've had some new cap space added, and you have a defensive player that's your highest paid defensive player, and he hasn't been on the field much the last two years, that has to be considered," Jones said on ESPN's SportsCenter. "You can't have it all."
Jones said he thought the switch on defense to a 4-3 played out last season to the detriment of Ware. In addition to career-low numbers, he missed three games due to neck, quadriceps and back injury.
"He's had a tough time getting on the practice field because of various injuries," Jones said. "All of that we have to weigh with how much of that has impacted him for the future as well as where he is in his career and with his age.
"Those are the ingredients in the stew. Now we've got to stir it up and see where we're going. It will be a very difficult call for us because of how much salary cap he uses."
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