LOS ANGELES — Jerry Jones was ready to back it down.
At the very least, the Dallas Cowboys’ team owner was prepared to make his negotiating position clear.
How much does he want to be reunited with All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb?
Jones explained Sunday that aspiration and urgency are not synonymous.
“It has absolutely nothing to do with what we think CeeDee Lamb is or will be to the Dallas Cowboys,” Jones said Sunday at SoFi Stadium before a preseason loss to the Los Angeles Rams. “I think if I said the other day, ‘We’re not in a rush on CeeDee Lamb,’ I would have been in trouble. [returning]”
Jones attributed the lack of urgency to the Cowboys’ regular-season opener against the Cleveland Browns being just four weeks away. He added that Lamb would not have played in any preseason games this week and said team owners aren’t concerned about Lamb’s compatibility with Dak Prescott, who is in his fifth year at quarterback.
Ahead of the Cowboys-Rams preseason game, Jerry Jones said he “got in trouble the other day” for saying signing CeeDee Lamb wasn’t an emergency.
“I understand the anxiety people have about whether or not they miss you. But, Sheedy, I miss you.”
Jerry explains 👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/84Ly8tL7o9
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) August 11, 2024
This isn’t the first time Dallas has waited to sign big-money contracts, as the Cowboys’ mantra that “the deadline gets the deal” for their stars is increasingly turning into “the deal doesn’t get done until the deadline.”
Among the team’s current roster alone — Prescott, running back Ezekiel Elliott and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence — are under contract in free agency, at the start of the season and at the surgery deadline, respectively — players and coaches know the Lamb negotiations are normal and largely outside of their control.
Still, how will the Cowboys’ negotiating strategy affect the psyche of the team? It’s a question worth asking for a team that’s been 28 years since its last conference title game, let alone a Super Bowl.
“I completely understand the anxiety that comes with when someone says something about whether they miss you or not,” Jones said. “‘Well, Sheedy, we miss you, but we don’t miss you when we’re out here competing.
“And it doesn’t put any pressure on us.”
‘We’re against each other’: Cowboys’ recent history explains Lamb’s long-term resistance
Elliott’s 2019 holdout was most similar to Lamb’s, and the results show why Lamb is behaving the way he does and what his outcome is likely to be.
Elliott sat out 40 full days of training camp while awaiting his first contract extension. He worked out in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, while his teammates spent a few weeks in Southern California before returning to Dallas.
The Cowboys and Elliott finally agreed to a contract extension four days before the season began. Dallas did not save money on the contract by waiting an entire offseason to sign Elliott, instead giving him a record-breaking six-year extension worth $90 million with $50 million guaranteed.
Along the way, Jones publicly expressed a stance similar to his comments about “there’s no urgency” for Lamb. Tensions escalated after Jones was asked about Elliott during the preseason and responded with “Zeke who?”
The moment surprised Elliott, but it came just as Lamb responded to Jones’ recent comments by tweeting, “lol.” What on earth is Lamb going through?
“It’s really tough because you’re all on the same team the first three or four years,” Elliott told reporters at Cowboys training camp. “It’s the first time you’re going against each other, so you’ve got to be a little tough… but at the end of the day, we all have the same goal and we’re all rooting for Sheedy.”
“It will be completed.”
Elliott isn’t the only one who feels this inevitability. Head coach Mike McCarthy echoed the sentiment, saying he’d be happy to see Lamb “when he gets here,” and talking about when, not if, Lamb’s future.
“We have every confidence in his work and he’s going to come in and hit the ground running,” McCarthy said Friday. “When the time comes, he’ll hit the ground running as if he never left.”
Lamb was in hot form before his departure. Last season, he caught a league-high 135 passes from Prescott for 1,749 yards (second to Tyreek Hill’s 1,799) and 12 touchdowns (third to Hill and Mike Evans’ 13).
Lamb and Prescott have been working out and communicating during the offseason, and Prescott, who is in the final year of his contract, is not unhappy with Lamb staying.
The recipient reached out to Prescott after his July 29 birthday with congratulations.
“That’s led to some discussions,” Prescott told reporters. “He wants to come back, he’s ready to come back and he wants this issue resolved. I feel the same way. Hopefully he can come back as soon as possible.”
“But I know he’s working hard and I know he’s itching to put in the work and is ready to get back to his guys.”
Would it be better for the Cowboys to rush to resolve Lamb or play it slow?
Based on past developments, Jones will likely sign Lamb to a contract by Week 1, and league executives expect Lamb to be back with the team by that time as well.
One executive who has negotiated high-profile deals considered the logic of holding out without regard for emotion.
“Hold on [is] “It’s a path of mutual destruction,” the NFC executive said. “You’re doing it because you think it will hurt us. It’s going to hurt you just as badly.”
Jerry Jones and the Cowboys have faced holdouts like CeeDee Lamb before, but that doesn’t make it any easier. (Photo by Jordan Kelly/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The executive pushed back against the Cowboys’ most common critics and offered three reasons for the current delay in negotiations.
The first is, how often does a team win a Super Bowl thanks to the best receiver on the market? The Kansas City Chiefs won the last two Super Bowls after trading for Hill, the league’s most productive receiver.
Second: The Cowboys simply can’t factor in big receiver contracts like the Cincinnati Bengals, who signed receiver Ja’Marr Chase a year after quarterback Joe Burrow was acquired in a trade. The Cowboys also aren’t in the same situation as the San Francisco 49ers and Brandon Aiyuk. Their trade comes a year ahead of the negotiating period for quarterback Brock Purdy, but they also benefited from a solid deal for last year’s top edge rusher, Nick Bosa.
Rather, Dallas should consider signing Lamb, Prescott or edge rusher Micah Parsons for the foreseeable future. If they can’t keep all three, who’s on the outside looking in? And even if they decide to keep all three, is there any reason to believe this deal will lead to a Lombardi Trophy when the trio has never won a divisional-round game in three healthy postseason seasons?
And third: If Lamb is under contract this year, why not wait another year to better solidify his value?
“People are paying them because they’re next in line, not because they’re valuable,” the executive said. “Sometimes there’s value in certainty.”
With expiring contracts for their quarterback, receiver and head coach, could the Cowboys just wait it out?
AFC general managers looked at Lamb’s holdout in a different light, refusing to answer when asked if a team that pays a quarterback so much can also sign a receiver. The question arose after the Vikings gave Justin Jefferson a contract extension worth $35 million per year. The Vikings are over the salary cap this season with their top two quarterbacks making a combined $8.97 million. The Cowboys are paying their quarterback a totally different amount, $58 million.
General manager rebuttal: Look at the Philadelphia Eagles. Quarterback Jalen Hart, receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and running back Saquon Barkley are all highly paid for their positions.
Their long contracts, voidable years and early negotiations put them in a strong position, and the cap arrangements are up to the team.
For now, the Cowboys are trying to convince Lamb that he doesn’t need the money the Vikings offered Jefferson or any assurances that the Bengals, having already signed Chase to a contract extension, won’t miss out on a looming market rise.
Lamb will likely argue the nod and hope a team makes him an offer he’s willing to accept before Sept. 8, when the stakes will be even higher.
Having come very close to that breaking point, Elliot can empathize.
“When the business side of the game comes into play, it’s the worst,” Elliott said. “The most important thing is to be in shape and be ready to go.”
“Deals will be made, but be ready to take action once they are made.”
