Cowboys open training camp more concerned with playoff success than contractual uncertainty

OXNARD, Calif. (AP) — Owner Jerry Jones knows the situation the Dallas Cowboys find themselves in as training camp started on Thursday.

Quarterback Dak Prescott is going into the last year of his contract. Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb is holding out, seeking a new contract. Linebacker Micah Parsons is also in line for a new deal at some point.

“Nobody’s feeling sorry for themselves,” Jones said. “As a matter of fact, I want to tell you how blessed we are to get to get up in the morning and have these problems. I wouldn’t take anything for it. I’m emboldened, it puts gas in my tank to basically have these problems.”

Despite the sense of uncertainty surrounding the team, which includes head coach Mike McCarthy entering into the final year of his contract, Jones wasn’t worried going into their annual training camp in Southern California.

Instead, Jones is focused on what happens at the end of the upcoming season, which he hopes will see the Cowboys win the Super Bowl for the first time since the end of the 1995 season.

“I’m more about winning the award for the best way to end the season than I am winning the award for showing up at camp with my house in order,” he said.

Even with that strong core, success in the playoffs has been elusive since raising the Lombardi Trophy for the third time in four years on Jan. 28, 1996.

Despite making the postseason in each of the past three seasons, the Cowboys have one win in that span and have not reached the NFC championship game. Their most recent playoff thud was a 48-32 home loss to the Green Bay Packers in an NFC wild-card game where Dallas trailed 27-0 in the first half.

Stephen Jones described the continued postseason failures as “the elephant in the room.” Prescott pointedly bristled at a question about how last season ended.

“We know that,” Stephen Jones said. “Our fans know that. Everybody knows that. These players know it, Mike knows it, his staff knows it. … We’ve got to go take the next step. And we haven’t done that, and until we do it, there’ll be frustration.”

The specter of another playoff exit was treated with more seriousness than the ongoing question of contracts. Stephen Jones said he has been having productive conversations with the agents for Prescott and Lamb.

Jerry Jones noted numerous contract disputes all over the league. Players likened Lamb’s holdout to that of guard Zack Martin last year, when he received a reworked contract after missing three weeks of camp and the preseason opener.

Even Prescott, who led the league with 36 touchdown passes, said he is going into this season with a welcoming sense of relief knowing he will be well compensated wherever he plays next.

“Obviously I want to be here,” Prescott said. “I want to be here, but when you look up all the great quarterbacks I watched played for other teams. My point in saying that is that’s not something to fear. That may be a reality for me one day. It may not be my decision. So that’s the freedom that I have.”

Jones was optimistic Prescott’s ninth season with the Cowboys will not be his last before conceding the uncertainty ahead.

“Believe it or not, in my life I’ve had a lot of things I wanted that I couldn’t get because I couldn’t afford it,” Jones said. “Now have I learned to live with that in 80-something years? You bet I have, and life does go on.”