They waited until the last minute, but the Dallas Cowboys and Dez Bryant agreed to a five-year, $70 million deal with a $20 million signing bonus before the 4:00 p.m. ET deadline on Wednesday.

The #Cowboys and Dez Bryant have an agreement in principle on a 5-year, $70M deal, per sources.

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— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 15, 2015

The most notable detail of the deal is $45 million in guaranteed money, which is more than the Cowboys gave Tyron Smith last offseason. That’s more than double what was originally reported when negotiations began several months ago, which means the Cowboys gave a little, but so did Bryant considering his average yearly salary is now $14 million and he had asked for more than $16 million, or anything more than “Megatron (Calvin Johnson) money.”

This is huge news for the Cowboys and their fans because it ends the long, ugly saga that ended with some threatening statements and tweets from Bryant, who vowed to sit out training camp and even some regular season games if he wasn’t given a new long-term contract by Wednesday’s deadline.

Of course, Bryant could have still played in 2015 without a long-term deal since he was franchise tagged by the team. However, he was very opposed to doing so and both sides would not have been able to negotiate a new deal until after the upcoming season, per league rules.

Bryant in the fold for not only the season, but also training camp is vital for Dallas’ success this year. In case you haven’t noticed, the Cowboys are in a “win-now” mode with key players like Greg Hardy and Rolando McClain signed to just one-year deals and, quite frankly, that would be a total waste without Bryant completely bought in and happy.

Bryant is now the most important player on the Cowboys’ roster, especially considering DeMarco Murray has moved on. Yes, Dallas’ offensive line is the most integral part of the team at this point, but without Bryant, Tony Romo and company wouldn’t have a go-to superstar for clutch situations.

With Bryant now locked up for the foreseeable future, Dallas can focus on improving from their incredible 12-4 finish in 2014. Needless to say, everyone in Cowboys Nation is now breathing a huge collective sigh of relief.

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