Dallas Cowboys: DeMarcus Lawrence will play the season under the franchise tag

The Dallas Cowboys have put the pause button on a DeMarcus Lawrence contract extension. Let’s take a look at why the negotiations have quieted down.

The Dallas Cowboys have finally come to a decision on whether or not they will offer a new contract to DeMarcus Lawrence. As of right now, the front office appears comfortable in allowing Tank to play under the franchise tag for the 2018 season.

Now there are reasons why the Cowboys want to do this/there are reasons why this is not necessarily a bad thing for Lawrence.

For one thing, the Dallas Cowboys top defensive end is making around $17 million this season and that number will only grow to $20 million in 2019. Now Lawrence has no problem playing for that amount of money per season. The Cowboys are likely trying to figure out whether or not Lawrence will be worth a massive extension.

More from Dallas Cowboys

Even though a long-term deal could mean less of a cap hit and a lower salary per season, the guaranteed money could be what they struggle with. A player of Lawrence’s caliber should be looking to land a lot of guaranteed money and that could be what the Dallas Cowboys and Tank’s representation are struggling with.

On one hand, Lawrence was second in sacks last season racking up double digits. On the other hand, he has missed some time due to suspension and injury. It would be fairly tough to say that he has been a reliable asset over the last few seasons however he has really come into his own as of late.

He dominated the NFL in 2017 and showed some of the traits that the Dallas Cowboys saw in him when they traded up to draft him. Now, of course, there were a lot of questions about the motivation for this.

Was he more productive because he was looking to get signed long term? Was it because he wanted to attract attention if he hit the open market? Did his play improve because he finally put it all together? The likely answer is a little bit of everything, but Lawrence did say some telling things during the offseason.

He was not worried about landing a new contract as he said he would let his play speak for itself and that Dallas was the only place he wanted to be. The feeling is probably mutual if he continues to play at a high level.

There are a lot of major contract negotiations heading into 2019 and the Cowboys front office may want to continue to play things safe. The team will have a ton of cap space heading into 2019 so the Dallas Cowboys offseason plans could be vastly different than in the past.

If Lawrence were to have a down year, would the same number of people clamoring for him to be signed to a long-term deal still exist? Probably not, and if his value goes down that only helps Dallas at the negotiating table.

Realistically the franchise tag was the most fiscally responsible option for Dallas as this young roster is being evaluated. So it is not that big of a surprise that a major commitment has not been reached yet.

Next: Dallas Cowboys: Who will start at safety in 2018?

For Lawrence last season his best attribute was availability if he is able to be productive and on the field, for the majority of the games on the schedule it would be pretty difficult for the Dallas Cowboys to not offer him a long-term contract.

Home/Dallas Cowboys