OXNARD, Calif. -- When the Dallas Cowboys arrived at Pt. Mugu Naval Air Station on Tuesday, defensive end Jeremy Mincey was not there.
Mincey is looking for a reworked contract and has been in discussions with the team since February. He is scheduled to be a free agent following the season after signing a two-year deal worth $3 million in 2014 that included $2 million guaranteed.
Mincey, 31, has not asked for a trade and is not contemplating retirement. He led the Cowboys in sacks with six last year and was a stabilizing presence in the lineup and the locker room. He missed out on a $500,000 escalator by less than 1 percent of playing time; he needed to play in 70 percent of the snaps to earn the extra money but fell 11 snaps shy.
Cowboys coaches credited Mincey, who started every game for the third time in his career, with a team-high 39 quarterback pressures in the regular season. In the playoffs he was credited with six tackles, two sacks, one tackle for loss, two quarterback pressures and one pass deflection, and he forced and recovered a fumble.
If Mincey, the 70th-highest paid defensive end in the league, does not report to training camp by Wednesday, then he would be subject to a maximum fine of $30,000 for each day he misses. The team can seek 15 percent of the player's prorated signing bonus starting on the sixth day of missed practices and up to a maximum of 25 percent during the entire camp. The Cowboys' first practice is Thursday.
Earlier in the offseason the Cowboys retooled the contract of Orlando Scandrick when he was set to make $1.5 million. The Cowboys added a year and $9.5 million to his deal. Scandrick will earn $4 million this year, and his 2016 base salary was upped to $5 million.
With the deal, the Cowboys kept a key piece of their defense happy while also maintaining solid salary-cap footing.
With the recent deal for star wide receiver Dez Bryant, the Cowboys have plenty of salary-cap room to rework Mincey's deal or sign defensive tackle Tyrone Crawford, who is also set to be a free agent when the season ends. According to ESPN Stats & Information, the Cowboys have roughly $17.8 million in cap space, but that does not account for the per-game roster bonuses Greg Hardy and Rolando McClain will earn during the season.