The Dallas Cowboys have played the slow game all offseason, with Jerry Jones sitting back and making very few significant moves while other teams in the NFL add new talent and lock down their top players with contract extensions.
While Jones is clearly committed to sticking by the current squad led by head coach Mike McCarthy and QB Dak Prescott — after three-straight 12-win regular seasons — it’s been interesting to see how the Cowboys owner and GM has decided to play a critical offseason when it comes to the team’s top players heading into 2024.
When the 2023 campaign came to an early end in the Wildcard loss against the Green Bay Packers, almost every NFL expert and insider believed the Dallas Cowboys would extend QB Dak Prescott as soon as possible, which would free up salary cap space to ink other deals with key players and add new talent to the roster.
Instead, Jones stated publicly he’s talked to Prescott and plans to let the Cowboys QB play out the final year of his contract, which means he will absorb a massive cap hit for 2024 and has a real chance of becoming a free agent after this season. New reports from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler now state the Dallas brass does in fact want to get a deal done with Prescott soon, but everything is up in the air as of now.
The Dallas Cowboys two other most important players, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons are also both entering the final year of their contracts and Jones — according to sources close to the team — plans to keep both All-Pro talents on the roster.
He used the franchise tag on Parsons and the assumption is the team will reach an extension with one of the best defensive players in the NFL before the end of 2024, while reports have continued to state the team plans to extend Lamb but as training camp nears, a deal still hasn’t been signed.
It would have been much smarter — and likely cheaper — if Jones would have taken a proactive approach and inked an extension with Lamb earlier, because the Vikings unprecedented deal making Justin Jefferson the highest-paid non QB in the NFL, Lamb’s price tag keeps getting higher.
Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones Clarifies Comments About CeeDee Lamb Contract
Lamb has been holding out from training camp this summer as he works to land a new long-term deal with the Cowboys. He’s entering the final year of his rookie contract on a $17.9 million fifth-year option. By comparison, Minnesota Vikings star Justin Jefferson reset the market with a four-year, $140 million extension earlier this summer.
Lamb is coming off a career season with the Dallas Cowboys, where he racked up 1,749 yards and 12 touchdowns on 135 catches. He helped lead Dallas to the playoffs for a third straight season, though the team was knocked out in the wild-card round.
Last week Jerry Jones was then asked if there is “a sense of urgency as the preseason begins to get something done” with Lamb.
“No,” he replied plainly, which Lamb clearly objected to by taking to social media simply saying “LOL.”
Ahead of Sunday’s preseason game vs. the Rams, the Dallas Cowboys owner attempted to clarify his comments about Lamb, but sort of took two steps forward and another step back in his response.
Ahead of Cowboys-Rams preseason game, Jerry Jones says he “got in trouble the other day” for saying signing CeeDee Lamb isn’t urgent.
“I understand completely the angst that’s happening (about) whether you’re missed or not. Well, CeeDee: You’re missed.”
Jerry clarifies👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/84Ly8tL7o9
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) August 11, 2024
“I think I got in in trouble the other day when I said we weren’t urgent about CeeDee. Nobody wants CeeDee on the field more than I do. But let me say this, he wouldn’t be taking a snap out here today if he had been here. You have got to use your head when you expose key players. That gives the other other younger players a chance to do it. We know exactly what CeeDee can do and he worked out with Dak. So We wouldn’t have him out here and it really has nothing to do with his contract. Dak won’t be out here today. So the bottom line is, no there is not that urgency.
Now I understand completely the angst that’s happening when you’re anxious about, and someone says anything about whether you’re missed or not, well CeeDee you are missed. But you’re not missed out here competing and it doesn’t put any pressure on us.”
