Canty still could sign long-term deal with Cowboys

Source: www.profootballweekly.com

DE Chris Canty got the first hurdle out of the way, and that was signing the team’s one-year restricted tender of $2.017 million last week. But the team and Canty are hopeful that a long-term deal can keep the emerging star in Dallas past 2009, when he would become an unrestricted free agent. The Cowboys have handed out more than $130 million worth of extensions and multi-year deals for Terence Newman, Marion Barber and Terrell Owens this spring and still have Canty and FS Ken Hamlin left as major players to deal with past this season. Canty blossomed as a run stopper and even showed a little pass-rush prowess last season and is viewed by the staff as a critical piece of the team’s front seven, likely more so than Marcus Spears, who was drafted three rounds before Canty in 2005. Canty also has participated fully in the team’s offseason activities, which team sources say might give him a slight advantage over Hamlin — who has remained away from the facility and has not signed his franchise tender — in terms of getting a deal done first.