LOS ANGELES — Jerry Jones was ready to walk it back.
At the very least, the Dallas Cowboys team owner was ready to clarify his negotiating stance.
How badly does he want to reunite with All-Pro receiver CeeDee Lamb?
Desire and urgency, Jones explained Sunday, are not synonymous.
"It has nothing to do with our feeling about what CeeDee Lamb is to the Dallas Cowboys and what we expect him to be in the future," Jones said Sunday from SoFi Stadium ahead of his team's preseason loss to the Los Angeles Rams. "I think I got in trouble the other day when I said, 'Look, we're not urgent about CeeDee [returning].'"
The lack of urgency stems from the four weeks remaining until the Cowboys open their regular season at the Cleveland Browns, Jones said. He added that Lamb would not have played in this week’s preseason game, and the team owner does not worry about Lamb’s chemistry entering Year 5 with Dak Prescott at quarterback.
This isn’t the first time Dallas has waited to sign a premium contract deal, the Cowboys’ mantra that “deadlines make deals” for their stars increasingly becoming “until there is a deadline, we will make no deal.”
On the team’s current roster alone, Prescott, running back Ezekiel Elliott and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence have received deals at deadlines for free agency, season opener and surgery time, respectively. Players and coaches alike know that Lamb’s negotiation is par for the course — and, largely, outside of their control.
Even so, what impact do the Cowboys’ negotiation strategies have on the team psyche? For an organization 28 years removed from its last conference title game, much less Super Bowl, it’s worth asking.
“I understand completely the angst that’s happening when … someone says anything about whether you’re missed or not,” Jones said. “‘Well, CeeDee: You’re missed. But you’re not missed out here competing.
“And it doesn’t put any pressure any place on us.”
‘Going against each other’: How Cowboys’ recent history explains prolonged Lamb holdout
Elliott’s 2019 holdout resembled Lamb’s most closely. Its result informs why Lamb is doing what he’s doing and what Lamb’s outcome will most likely be.
Elliott held out of training camp a full 40 days in awaiting his first contract extension. He trained in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, as his teammates spent weeks in Southern California and then returned to Dallas.
Not until four days before the season opener did the Cowboys and Elliott agree to an extension. Dallas did not save on the deal by waiting an entire offseason to sign Elliott, instead awarding him a record-breaking six-year extension worth $90 million with $50 million guaranteed.
Along the way, Jones publicly presented a stance similar to his "no urgency" Lamb comments. Tension ratcheted when Jones was asked a question about Elliott during the preseason and responded: "Zeke who?"
The moment surprised Elliott just as Jones' recent comments prompted Lamb to tweet "lol." What might Lamb be experiencing?
“It’s really tough, because you go through your first three to four years and you guys are on the same side,” Elliott told reporters at Cowboys training camp. “This is the first time that now you’re kind of going against each other. So you got to have a little thick skin…but at the end of the day, we all have the same goal and we all support CeeDee.
“It’s gonna get done.”
Elliott’s not alone in his sense of inevitability. Head coach Mike McCarthy has spoken similarly about how he’ll be glad to see Lamb “once he gets here,” speaking in “whens” not “ifs” about Lamb’s future.
“We have all the confidence in the way he works that he’s going to come in here, ready to go,” McCarthy said Friday. “When that time comes, we’ll pick up like he never left.”
Before Lamb left, he was at the top of his game. Lamb caught a league-high 135 passes from Prescott last season for 1,749 yards (second to Tyreek Hill’s 1,799) and 12 touchdowns (third place after Hill and Mike Evans’ 13).
Lamb and Prescott have worked out in the offseasons and are communicating. Prescott, also entering the final year of his contract, does not begrudge Lamb’s holdout.
The receiver reached out to Prescott with wishes after Prescott’s July 29 birthday.
“That led to some talks as well,” Prescott told reporters. “He’s wanting to get back, ready to get back, hoping this thing gets done for him. I know I am as well. Hopefully we can get him back sooner than later.
“But I know he’s grinding and I know he’s itching and working and ready to be back with the boys.”
Are Cowboys better off rushing or slow-playing Lamb resolution?
History says Jones will sign off on a Lamb deal before Week 1. Executives around the league believe Lamb, too, will be in the building around then.
One executive who has negotiated high-profile deals considered the logic of a holdout independent of emotions.
“Holding out [is] a path of mutual destruction,” the NFC executive said. “You’re doing that because you think it’s gonna hurt us. It’s gonna hurt you just as bad.”
The executive pushed back against the most common refrains criticizing the Cowboys, arguing three points for their current negotiation delay.
The first: How often does a team win the Super Bowl because of their top-of-market receiver? The Kansas City Chiefs won the last two Super Bowls after trading away the league's most productive receiver in Hill.
The second: The Cowboys can't simply factor in a receiver megadeal like the Cincinnati Bengals as receiver Ja'Marr Chase holds in a year after quarterback Joe Burrow cashed in. Neither are the Cowboys in the same boat as the San Francisco 49ers and Brandon Aiyuk, whose trade considerations do precede quarterback Brock Purdy's negotiation window by a year but also benefit from the certainty of top edge rusher Nick Bosa's deal settling last year.
Rather, Dallas has to consider Lamb, Prescott and edge rusher Micah Parsons for deals in the imminent future. If they can’t keep all three, who’s on the outside looking in? And if they choose to keep all three — is there reason to believe the deals will lead them to a Lombardi Trophy when the trio hasn’t won a divisional-round game in three healthy postseasons together?
And the third: If Lamb’s under contract this year, why not wait another year and have more certainty in his value?
“People are paying guys just because they’re next, not because they’re worthy,“ the executive said. “Sometimes there’s value in certainty.”
Can a Cowboys team with quarterback, receiver and head coach on expiring contracts stand to wait?
An AFC general manager viewed Lamb’s holdout differently, pushing back when asked how teams who pay top dollar to quarterbacks could also reach deals with receivers. The question arose after the Vikings gave Justin Jefferson an extension worth $35 million per year as they benefit from their top two quarterbacks costing a combined $8.97 million against the cap this season. The Cowboys hover in a wholly different ballpark at $58 million.
The general manager’s retort: Look at the Philadelphia Eagles. Quarterback Jalen Hurts, receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, and running back Saquon Barkley are all getting paid handsomely for their positions.
Lengthy deals, a bucket of voidable years and earlier negotiating help their case. Cap gymnastics are at teams’ disposal.
For now, the Cowboys will look to convince Lamb that he needs neither the price tag that the Vikings gave Jefferson nor the assurance that the Bengals have already extended Chase and thus he’s not missing the boat on a looming market increase.
Lamb will look to argue the opposites — and hope the team makes an offer he’s willing to take before September 8, when the stakes rise higher.
Elliott, who came very close to that breaking point, can empathize.
“It sucks when the business part of the game comes up,” Elliott said. “The most important thing is just staying in shape, making sure you’re ready.
“The deal’s gonna get done. But when that deal gets done, be ready to hit the ground running.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0