After getting the franchise tag for the second straight season, the question is what do the Dallas Cowboys do next about Anthony Spencer. While both the options of giving him a long term contract or trading him to another team are on the table, the Cowboys probably would like to keep him as they rebuild their defense.

According to Jerry Jones and Spencer’s agent, Jordan Woy, the two sides aren’t any closer to signing a new deal, nor have they discussed any trading options for the player.

At first look, it doesn’t look like a reasonable thing to trade Spencer. The Cowboys are moving to a 4-3 defense, and there are many that think that the outside linebacker, with 11 sacks last season, will do even better playing as a defensive end. Still, as the Cowboys do have their problems at both inside linebacker and the offensive line, maybe using Spencer as trade bait is still not off the table.

Spencer is looking for a long term deal that will net him probably somewhere around $8 million a season on average. He’s already making $10.6 because of being franchised two seasons in a row, possible because Dallas managed restructuring about a dozen contracts, still waiting to begin and advance with Tony Romo, who holds the key to the team’s ability to make a move for players in free agency and give Spencer that long-term deal.

Spencer will get someone to pay him that $8 million a season if he’d hit free agency, but that, at the most, will have to wait until next season. Unless the Cowboys grow tired of trying to bring the 29 year old on his demands. Only then we will see a trade, as the Cowboys try to get a couple of draft picks to improve at both interior linebacker and the offensive line, hoping that Chance Warmack either slips down the board to the 18th pick, or they’ll find a way to trade up for him.

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