DeMarcus Lawrence blew up last season to the tune of 14.5 sacks.
Fortunately for him, unfortunately for the Cowboys, this miraculous effort came during a contract year for DLaw. Dallas responded by rewarding Lawrence with a franchise tag (a cool $17.1M) back in early March, a deal that he signed hours later.
Today, July 16th, has long been the deadline for players that were franchise tagged to sign long-term contracts. If it didn’t get done by 4pm ET today, it was locked in for this season.
Multiple reports from various NFL insiders surfaced over the weekend all but confirmed that there would be no big-time deal between Lawrence and the Cowboys.