His QB and head coach acknowledge the business side of Schultz’s situation, but it may make more financial sense for Dallas to sit tight. | From @ToddBrock24f7
With three weeks to go before his franchise tag becomes official for the duration of the upcoming season, Dalton Schultz does not seem to be any closer to getting a long-term contract extension from the Cowboys.
And the stalemate could last a very long time.
The tight end from Stanford, entering his fifth pro season, skipped the final week of the team’s voluntary OTA sessions over frustrations with the process.
He returned for mandatory minicamp, as skipping would have incurred a fine, but now, with the team on break until late July and the start of training camp in Oxnard, it’s going to take one or both sides picking up the phone and hammering out a deal.
According to Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News, however, the conversation has hit a lull. “The two sides currently stand far apart in negotiations,” he writes. He goes on to suggest that “talks would need to take on new life to culminate in a contract, and market conditions could compel the Cowboys to wait.”
Schultz signed his tender back in March, locking in a 2022 salary of $10.93 million if a new deal isn’t reached by July 15. Late last month, he told reporters he hadn’t been too concerned with contract talks, saying, “I let my agent kind of handle all that business.” Schultz was focused instead on bulking up in the gym so that he could, as he put it, “hold my own a little more” against the league’s larger edge rushers.
Head coach Mike McCarthy has mostly sidestepped questions about his starter, a former fourth-round draft pick who has turned into one of the more reliable tight ends around the league.
“Great question,” McCarthy replied when asked if Schultz would report to training camp as scheduled. “Business question. I think we’re all hopeful, and it’d be great for everybody.”
Schultz’s teammates similarly expressed confidence that the dollars-and-cents side of the game would work itself out.
“The offense is better with him in it,” guard Zack Martin offered. “I understand completely what he’s going through. It’s tough, but it’s good to have him out there.”
Quarterback Dak Prescott knows better than most, having done the franchise tag dance with the Cowboys front office for all of 2020. He was tagged again in March of 2021, only to sign a $160 million contract the next day.
“It’s huge,” he said of Schultz’s return to the team during OTAs. “Obviously just what he means to this team, his leadership, the role he stepped into: to be the guy at tight end and to be a leader of this offense and to make plays. He’s a guy that I can count on, that I can trust, and that’s continued to grow. And it’s grown through these last few weeks.”
The Cowboys have a handful of tight ends behind Schultz on the depth chart, but none of them have anything resembling his experience. Sean McKeon enters his third season but has just four total catches. Veteran journeyman Jeremy Sprinkle is mainly a blocker and special teamer. Ian Bunting has seen action in one game and only signed a futures contract in January. Jake Ferguson was drafted in the fourth round out of Wisconsin; Peyton Hendershot was signed as an UDFA out of Indiana.
The NFL’s tight end market saw a boom during this offseason, with Cleveland’s David Njoku inking a four-year, $54.75 million deal in May. That contract ($13.69 million annually) is now seen as the floor that Schultz’s representatives would likely use in their negotiations with Dallas.
San Francsico’s George Kittle earns a league-best $15 million a year at the position.
Given that, Gelhken points out that “it would be a reasonable business approach for the Cowboys to recognize the $10.93 million and $13.12 million costs to tag Schultz in 2022 and 2023, respectively.”
Which means that Schultz’s phone may not ring at all over the next three weeks.
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