'We'll See': Where Do Cowboys Stand on Dalton Schultz Contract Holdout?

"Dalton deserves this position that he's in,'' McCarthy said. "So hopefully we can get it worked out."

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys' good news as it relates to the Dalton Schultz holdout? His respect for the organization, and the head coach, is such that he personally contacted Mike McCarthy to open this week to alert him to his position.

The bad news? Not even McCarthy is certain what will happen next.

"Business is business and I'm in the business of winning football games. We all have contracts. We all have these types of situations that they come about," McCarthy said. "Timing obviously plays into these decisions and transactions. ...''

And what about the "timing'' next week, when voluntary OTAs morph into mandatory work?

“We’ll see what next week brings," the coach said, admitting he is unsure of whether the franchise-tagged tight end will show up.

"My conversation with him was he was going to miss this week and it was to focus on his business situation," McCarthy added.

Schultz and the Cowboys have until July 15 to work out a multi-year deal or Schultz will play the 2022 season on the tag, worth just under $10.9 million fully guaranteed. If he does skip next week, he can technically be fined almost $100,000.

Why Schultz stays home - McCarthy said "He's in great shape ... this is the strongest he's ever been'' - more practice reps are going to tight ends like Jeremy Sprinkle, Sean McKeon and most importantly, Jake Ferguson, the fourth-round draft pick out of Wisconsin.

But none of those guys can do what Schultz has done, setting career highs in catches (78), receiving yards (808) and touchdowns (eight) last year while continuing to gain the full trust of QB Dak Prescott.

Prescott, for his part, is supportive of Schultz and unworried.

"We'll handle it,'' Dak said.

Schultz, for his part, has the right to eyeball the Browns' new David Njoku deal (with a massive APY of $14 million) and see it as the bar.

And coach McCarthy, for his part?

"Dalton deserves this position that he's in,'' McCarthy said. "So hopefully we can get it worked out."

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