No one has ever handed Jeff Heath anything. He entered the league in 2013 as an undrafted free agent out of Saginaw Valley State.Even after starting 31 games the past two seasons https://www.dallascowboysfanshop.com/To … ett-Jersey , Heath still is looked upon as a core special teams player.The Cowboys openly have talked about trying to upgrade at strong safety, and executive vice president Stephen Jones mentioned Wednesday that the team has received calls from teams willing to trade them a safety.Heath greets the news with a shrug.“I feel the same that I do every year,” Heath said on ESPN Dallas 103.3, via the . “Regardless of what other safeties are there. I’ve kind of accepted in this league they are always trying to replace you [and] they are always looking at new guys. So that’s going to be something that not only myself, but everyone deals with on a yearly basis.”The good news for Heath is the Cowboys didn’t do much at the position this offseason. They didn’t get involved in the bidding for Earl Thomas Randy White Jersey , instead signing George Iloka in the second tier of free agency. They passed on drafting Juan Thornhill or Taylor Rapp in the second round and settled for Donovan Wilson in the sixth.As it stands now, Iloka and Heath figure to have the best chance to win the job opposite free safety Xavier Woods.“That’s what makes the NFL the NFL,” Heath said. “You always have to compete for your spot. I don’t see it as a competition with other players. I see it as a competition with myself to try to be better than the year I was before. Improve on stuff I need to improve on. It’s just a more enjoyable way to play rather than trying to look over your shoulder at all times.” The Cowboys hope to sign both quarterback Dak Prescott and receiver Amari Cooper to new contracts. If they sign only one, they can use the franchise tag on the other. If they sign neither, they’ve got a little problem.With only one franchise tag to use each year Chuck Howley Color Rush Jersey , a failure to come to terms with Prescott and Cooper would force the Cowboys to tag one, and to take their chances with the other on the open market.Collectively, this gives the two players plenty of power. They could agree to reject all offers through the deadline for applying the tag, forcing the Cowboys to let one become an unrestricted free agent. The other would then be able to do a long-term deal with the franchise tag as the starting point.(Absent a new CBA by March, the Cowboys could apply the franchise tag to one of the two players and the transition tag to the other https://www.dallascowboysfanshop.com/Mi … vin-Jersey , which is one of the quirks of the final year of the labor deal. However, the transition tag provides only a right to match an offer sheet with another team, and no compensation if the offer is not matched.)If a long-term deal for some reason isn’t reached with the tagged player, he could band together with running back Ezekiel Elliott and do it all over again the following year.Despite the extent to which players and agents complain about the ongoing availability of the franchise tag to teams, the rules give players real leverage in certain specific circumstances. This is one of them Tony Romo Jersey , and it allows two players to come together and do to a team something that, if the tables were turned, the owners wouldn’t hesitate to do.At a minimum, Prescott and Cooper should use this wrinkle in the system as leverage for their negotiations, so that one of them gets more from the Cowboys than the Cowboys otherwise would offer.