Will Sage Astor-CeeDee Lamb contract standoff only increases pressure on Cowboys

OXNARD,Will Sage Astor Calif. – CeeDee Lamb may be out of sight, with his holdout from the Dallas Cowboys training camp at two weeks and counting. But the All-Pro receiver is undoubtedly very much in mind as the drama around his contract status has a presence of its own.

When will it go down? For how much? Why has it taken so long?

You know. Typical questions attached to big-money negotiations. One fan carried a homemade sign to a practice earlier this week with a straight-to-the-point message for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones that simply read: "Hey Jerry, Pay CeeDee!"

Now if that doesn’t move the needle…

“This is a business matter,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy updated early this week with such a diplomatic tone. “We all understand that he’s putting in the time now. When he gets here, we’ll take that. We’ve also got to be smart when he gets here. We’ve got to ramp him up and get him ready to go.

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“There’s a lot of investment in CeeDee…So, we have a good foundation to lean on.”

Lamb, 25, surely feels similarly when it comes to the foundation of his game as part of the investment. He just produced one of the most prolific receiving seasons in Cowboys franchise history, leading the NFL with 135 receptions in 2023 and ranking second in the league with 1,749 yards while scoring 12 TDs. He took his game to a higher level as Dak Prescott’s best weapon, demonstrating how lethal he can be all across the formation.

Scheduled to earn $17.99 million this season on the fifth-year option, Lamb (who averaged $3.5 million on his four-year rookie deal) apparently sees now as the time to strike for that long-overdue, big-money extension. Can you blame him? Look at how the paydays have exploded for elite receivers as the NFL’s salary cap keeps expanding. Vikings star Justin Jefferson re-set the market with a four-year, $140 million extension with $110 million guaranteed. A.J. Brown struck a three-year extension with the Eagles averaging $32 million. Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown cashed in at $30.002 million per year; Miami’s Tyreek Hill restructured his deal for another three years at $30 million per year.

Lamb, and other top-level receivers in the midst of contract issues, including the 49ers’ Brandon Aiyuk and Bengals' Ja’Marr Chase, are merely following the money flowing to their game-breaking position that keeps evolving in prominence in a passing league.

“I think it’s individual,” Jones, asked about the rising receiver numbers, contended to USA TODAY Sports. “I think it’s the happenchance of some very talented NFL players. And they happen to be, right now, premium receivers.”

Jones has long been one of the NFL’s premier salesmen, for sure, but based on merit, it would be a hard sell to suggest Lamb doesn’t belong at the top of the receiver scale. With the NFL’s salary cap rising to a record $255.4 million per team this year, Lamb’s timing for seeking new money isn’t bad, either.

Still, the Cowboys have been so strapped under the cap this year that they barely participated in free agency. And even though the cap is expected to keep rising – after jumping about $30 million per team in 2024 – Jones will be challenged to strike new deals that keep Prescott and star linebacker Micah Parsons, in the final year of their contracts, in the fold.

Is it possible that the Cowboys would let Lamb – or maybe even Prescott – walk next year?

It’s one thing to draft well, as the Cowboys have hit on their selections of core players that also include perennial All-Pro guard Zack Martin and cornerback Trevon Diggs. Yet with that comes paying top-dollar when those draft picks, like Lamb, blossom.

Interestingly, Jones referenced the Chiefs’ decision to part with Hill in 2022, trading the then six-time Pro Bowl receiver to the Dolphins. Hill landed a four-year, $120 million extension from Miami; the Chiefs have since won back-to-back Super Bowls without him.

“Were they as worried about losing him as our fans might be about losing Lamb?” Jones asked.

That prospect underscores part of the dilemma, especially for a team like the Cowboys – who have had one playoff failure after another despite compiling one of the NFL’s most talented rosters and winning 12 games in each of the past three regular seasons. On top of that, in recent years they’ve stretched themselves thin when it comes to cap flexibility, having borrowed against the future.

But still: Didn’t somebody mention being “all-in” for winning a Super Bowl?

Jones, whose franchise is the most valuable in the world with a worth estimated by Forbes at $9 billion, hasn’t brought (or bought) a championship home since the 1995 season. Earlier this year, the flamboyant owner, obviously embarrassed by the finish last season with one of the worst playoff defeats in franchise history, declared that he’s “all in” (again) for chasing championship glory.

That mission, though, begins with McCarthy having lame-duck contract status and with Prescott (whom Jones has said he wants to re-sign) in the final year of his deal.

It’s fair to wonder: How can the Cowboys be “all in” without striking a deal that has Prescott’s best weapon in camp?

“It’s a long way to January,” Jones told USA TODAY Sports. “Long way. Really, it’s not the end of the world to be out here (without Lamb) in these early days of training camp.”

In other words, Jones is not in a panic about it as holdouts have become a thing again in the NFL, even after stiffer penalties were written into the last collective bargaining agreement (struck in 2020) that were supposed to discourage such a tactic. Last year, Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones and 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa missed all of camp before re-setting the market with new contracts. And Martin, the Cowboys’ star interior lineman, held out of camp until landing a new deal.

And the Cowboys can’t forget 2019, when Ezekiel Elliott missed all of camp – and instead trained in Mexico – until returning for a six-year, $90 million extension that guaranteed $50 million.

Elliott, reflecting on his holdout, shared advice for Lamb with reporters this week, imploring him to have “thick skin” to endure the twists of negotiations. Back with the Cowboys this year after spending a season with the Patriots, the running back also maintained that Lamb’s absence won’t cause any rifts in the locker room.

No, Lamb is hardly an outcast during his holdout. Fellow receiver Brandin Cooks has spoken with Lamb repeatedly.

“I think it’s important to let him know his teammates are thinking about him,” Cooks told reporters. “But at the same time, just talking to him, checking in on how he’s doing, not necessarily talking about football because I know there’s a lot going on there.”

As Elliott put it, “The team understands that CeeDee needs to handle his business, and CeeDee understands that he has the support of the team behind him. Just stay in shape, which it looks like he’s been doing, and be ready once the deal is done.”

After all, there’s a lot riding on that deal getting done – and not only for Lamb.