Are the Cowboys headed for a Le’Veon Bell-style showdown with DeMarcus Lawrence?

The Cowboys put the franchise tag on star defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence for the second straight year on Monday, ensuring he’ll be under contract with them for his sixth season as a pro. Dallas, however, could be facing some drama this offseason.

Lawrence has already indicated he won’t sign his franchise tender, setting up a possible showdown with the only team he’s ever known as a pro. The tagging has left him feeling “disrespected,” which could be a major obstacle in his negotiations with club management. It’s a familiar scenario — and one that ended disastrously for the Steelers less than one year ago.

The dynamic edge defender’s second consecutive season under the tag and his unhappiness with it mirrors the situation that drove a wedge between Pittsburgh and tailback Le’Veon Bell. Like Bell, Lawrence is a former second-round pick who rose to stardom over the course of four dirt-cheap seasons on his rookie contract. And like Bell, his inability to glean the long-term deal from the team that drafted him has led to two high-cost franchise tags — and one potential standoff between player and team.

Bell’s saga in Pittsburgh ended this winter after the club decided he wasn’t worth the $25.5 million attached to a third straight tag or the ineffective protections of the transition tag. This has allowed him to taste free agency for the first time in his six-year NFL career. All he had to do to get there is sit out the entire 2018 season.

That’s an example Lawrence can cite in his ongoing negotiations — and if the Cowboys aren’t careful, they could be dealing with a holdout of their own.

Dallas enters 2019 with more salary cap space than it has in several years, but there are several other long-term priorities that need to be taken care of alongside Lawrence. His $20.571 million contract for the upcoming season — 120 percent of last year’s $17.1 million tag — leaves the Cowboys with approximately $25 million to spend this spring. Much of that room will be entangled in reworked deals for Amari Cooper and Dak Prescott as they head into their final seasons under contract with the team.

Extending Cooper and his $13.9 million cap hit for 2019 won’t do much to this year’s salary sheet. The same can’t be said for Prescott, whose salary is about to jump from $2.1 million to somewhere around $25 million as one of the league’s best (and youngest) quarterbacks — his 96 passer rating is eighth-best among full-time quarterbacks over the past three seasons. Assuming Ezekiel Elliott and his $24.4 million fifth-year option are picked up, Dallas could wind up paying three players $65 million or more in 2020 before even getting to Lawrence.

Like Bell, Lawrence is looking for a long-term deal, and the cost of keeping a high-profile pass rusher will be significantly more than a top-three running back. While it’s unlikely Lawrence resets the market for defensive players following Khalil Mack’s well-earned (but still expensive) six-year, $141 million extension in Chicago, it’s not unreasonable to think $20 million annually over six years — something similar to the six-year, $114 million deal Von Miller inked with Denver back in 2016, plus inflation — would be Lawrence’s target number.

Factor in that hypothetical $20 million with Prescott, Cooper, and Elliott’s extensions, as well as guard Zack Martin’s uncuttable $15 million hit for 2020, and you’ve got a number approaching or exceeding $100 million. Would the Cowboys be OK with committing half their cap space to five individuals?

A multiyear deal could stretch some of what’s owed to Lawrence this fall on to future seasons in a space-saving move, but owner and general manager Jerry Jones hasn’t gotten to that stage of bargaining yet. The team’s first offer to Lawrence came in low enough to be brushed aside and not considered “serious” by the talented defensive end and his agent. That led to the tag — and suggests negotiations will be anything but a simple, amenable process.

Keeping Lawrence around at the price he wants, even with some clever accounting, is going to require some sacrifice. Will Jones be willing to let some offensive weapons go to keep his pass rush intact? Would he break the bank for Lawrence knowing that payday could restrict his ability to pay Elliott — the player over whom he went to battle against the NFL?

He can sit out 2019 like Bell did, though the likelihood of that will fluctuate depending on what happens with the star tailback in free agency. If the former Steelers standout gets the monster contract with massive guarantees he’d been angling for, it might empower Lawrence to forgo his $20 million 2019 salary in order to stay fresh and secure the bag in 2020. If Bell’s value has been diminished by his refusal to play a second straight year under the tag, it could make this year’s $1.18 million weekly paychecks a little easier to swallow.

If Lawrence does extend a holdout through 2019, he’d be a free agent the following season. The Cowboys could still franchise tag him again, though a third year under the tag would cost the team 144 percent of his 2019 salary — more than $29 million. That’s unlikely, even if it’s not as much of a raise for a pass rusher like Lawrence as it would have been for a runner like Bell.

If Dallas still isn’t willing to meet Lawrence’s asking price and feels the franchise tag is too steep, a last-gasp effort to keep him in Texas could involve the transition tag. That would give the club the right of first refusal on a contract offer from a competing team, though opponents could just front-load that offer in a way that would be impossible for the Cowboys to match. Dallas wouldn’t receive any compensation if Lawrence were signed away under the transition tag.

Or, Lawrence could decide the $20.1 million payday is worth the risk of playing a full season and return to the franchise under the tag in 2019 knowing free agency is only a year away. The Cowboys could also trade Lawrence in exchange for a pair of first-round picks — the required tender for signing away a franchised player. This will not happen.

Where Bell’s struggle came against a historically prudent franchise, Lawrence bumps up against a much less predictable foe. Jones hasn’t been shy about spending in his three decades of owning the Cowboys. He’s also made sure to take care of homegrown stars even if the financials don’t make a ton of sense, like when he handed Jason Witten a four-year extension in 2017 — when Witten was already 35 years old. Or when he brought back a since-retired Witten on a new deal worth up to $5 million.

His generosity hasn’t been limited solely to marquee players. Last summer Jones engineered a six-year, $84 million extension for Martin that kept him from hitting free agency. Fellow linemen Tyron Smith and Travis Frederick have also signed lengthy, lucrative extensions in recent years as well.

Lawrence and his team have until July 15 to work out a deal with Jones, and they’ll have plenty of ammunition to back up their case. The 265-pound defensive end has been one of the league’s most effective edge rushers the past two seasons, earning Pro Bowl honors in a prove-it 2018 after the team first saddled him with the franchise tag. His 25 sacks the past two years are tied for the fourth-most in the league. His 49 quarterback hits are tied for seventh-most.

From a statistical standpoint, he’s been a more productive pass rusher than Von Miller (24.5 sacks, 49 QB hits, 17 fewer tackles than Lawrence) since 2017. Those are bonafides that justify his contract demands, and at a soon-to-be 27 years old, he should be able to fight off the drop-off that comes with age for the next few seasons.

The Cowboys need him, too — their pass rush without Lawrence is almost nonexistent. Lawrence led the team in sacks with 10.5 last season. The player with the second-most was Randy Gregory with six; Gregory is currently indefinitely suspended by the league. Dallas also has zero first-round picks in this year’s draft.

The good news for both sides is that not many people close to the Cowboys’ organization are worried about a Lawrence standoff in the heart of Texas.

Situations like Bell’s are rare, and paying a pass-rushing edge defender a premium price over multiple years going into his age-27 season makes more sense in this version of the NFL than doing the same for a running back at age 26. Powerful pass rushers like Lawrence perform well into their 30s more often than running backs do — and players like Michael Bennett, Calais Campbell, and Cameron Wake serve as proof.

These signs all point to Lawrence living up to the terms of the long-term contract the Cowboys are trying to avoid. But if Jones doesn’t want to add him to a top-heavy salary cap sheet in 2020, the two sides could wind up at an impasse like Bell in Pittsburgh. Season-long holdouts are rare, but the former Steeler is set to prove a franchise-tag bet on himself can pay off.

If it does, expect Lawrence to be a lot less willing to compromise — especially in negotiations with a franchise that’s so often taken care of its own.