Stephen Jones: Cowboys Glad to Have Dez Negotiations Behind Them

With the Dez Bryant deal done, we’re finally getting some idea of how the negotiations between Bryant’s camp and the Dallas Cowboys played out. Spoiler: It wasn’t a cakewalk.

Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones joined 1310-AM The Ticket on Wednesday, shortly after Bryant had signed the five-year, $70 million deal at Valley Ranch, and called it one of the more difficult negotiations he’s ever been a part of. Interestingly enough, the last time Stephen Jones was in the news before this was earlier in the week, when he refuted a report that Bryant had directly threatened the team with missing training camp and games. Bryant then took to Twitter and said in no uncertain terms that yes, that’s exactly what he was threatening.

But fortunately for all of us, all that ugliness is behind the Cowboys.

“More than anything it’s great for Dez but most importantly great for our team that we get this behind us and move forward,” Jones said, via the Dallas Morning News. “This has obviously taken some time. It’s probably 12 to 15 months in the making, and Dez has been patient and I applaud him for that.

“This is one of the harder deals to do because of the discrepancies out there in the market. It wasn’t something that was easy to get done, but he was patient. I do think this is a big positive for us, he'll be there at training camp and ready to roll and obviously a big part of what we do as a football team in terms of not only what he does on the field but what he brings in terms of his intensity and his passion for the game of football.”