IRVING, Texas -- Cole Beasley tells FOX Sports Southwest he's agreed to a four-year contract that can be worth as much as $15 million.
Cole Beasley, a reliable favorite of quarterback Tony Romo and coach Jason Garrett, is now going to be paid that way by the Dallas Cowboys, with a four-year deal reportedly worth $13.6 million with a $7-million signing bonus, but with Beasley telling us the contract has the potential to be worth $15.1 million.
The Cowboys' approach here: prevent Dallas from having to make a tender offer we projected to be a second-round value ($2.406 million), which would've left him open to negotiation with other clubs. It's not hard to envision a club offering a second-rounder for Beasley and stealing him, so the Cowboys created a way to lessen his 2015 cap hit (less than the tender, that is). We'll also guesstimate the numbers to include a $4 mil signing bonus, a guaranteed base of less than $1 mil this year, and a fully-guaranteed second year at around $2.255 million in 2016.
Among Dallas' restricted guys, Beasley would likely have been most coveted on the open market. The slot receiver is a third-down-conversion machine and catches basically any and everything thrown to him (75-percent catch rate and didn't drop a single pass in 2014). His production has increased every season in the offense. He is quick, shifty and has shown not only the ability to avoid the big hit, but also survive it despite his diminutive 5-foot-8, 177-pound frame.
"I think Cole is motivated to do it because if he doesn't get it done he'll have to play out the year with probably a tender and then won't be able to see free agency until next year,” COO Stephen Jones told us over the weekend. “So, hopefully he's motivated to do it. Certainly we're motivated to do it and would like to lock him up.''
The motivation has paid off.
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