Cowboys news: Big contracts still “biggest domino” to fall as CeeDee Lamb goes quiet on possible extension

Training camp is quickly approaching, and plenty is happening with the Cowboys before arriving in Oxnard.

NFL Offseason Dominos Left to Fall Ahead of 2024 Training Camp – Kristopher Knox, Bleacher Report
The Cowboys are certainly playing the long game when it comes to deciding who will be their cornerstone players moving forward.

The Cowboys’ Contract Conundrum

While the Dallas Cowboys may not actually be “America’s Team,” they’ve been arguably the most intriguing team to track in the 2024 offseason—and not because of the moves they have made.

The Cowboys—who were inexplicably quiet in free agency and did little to address their own contract situations— have become this offseason’s train wreck. Dallas has three key players who are due extensions in Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons. It refused, however, to move quickly on new deals for any of them.

“We’d like to see more leaves fall,” franchise owner Jerry Jones said in April, per Patrik Walker of the team’s official website.

By waiting, Dallas has backed itself into a corner. Prescott cannot be franchise-tagged in 2025, and he’s watched quarterbacks like Jared Goff and Trevor Lawrence set a new bar in the QB market. Lamb will be a free agent next offseason and has watched Amon-Ra St. Brown, A.J. Brown and Justin Jefferson take turns as the league’s highest-paid receiver.

Parsons has two years left on his rookie deal, but it’s not like the price of pass-rushers is going down. Getting all three players extended this offseason would have been ideal.

Prescott has plenty of leverage because he can pocket $55.5 million this season and then hit the market in 2025 if he doesn’t like what Dallas has to offer. According to Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News, Lamb is expected to hold out of training camp without a new deal.

Parsons is willing to stay patient and await his turn as one of the league’s highest-paid players.

There’s still time for Dallas to address one or more of these situations before camp, but with only $10.1 million in cap space, it’ll be very interesting to see how and if the Cowboys can get any deals done.

CeeDee Lamb announces on social media he won’t answer contract questions – Charean Williams, Pro Football Talk
There’s no denying the impact CeeDee Lamb makes on the field, but will all of this offseason drama be a distraction come training camp?

The Cowboys receiver will welcome kids to his camps in Texas on Tuesday, Wednesday and July 20. Lamb made clear he won’t entertain any contract questions in response to a post by Brandon Loree of Blogging the Boys who wrote, “If media is present, it could be the first time Lamb speaks about a potential contract situation.”

“I’m not speaking about any contract negotiations, if that’s your questions,” Lamb wrote. “You’ll get 0 answers. It’s about the kids.”

The obvious question is how long Lamb plans to hold out in the absence of an extension. He skipped the team’s offseason program, including the mandatory minicamp, which drew more than $100,000 in fines.

The Cowboys’ first training camp practice in Oxnard, California, is July 25, and Lamb is not expected.

Lamb is set to make $17.99 million this year on the fifth-year option and is eligible for the franchise tag in 2025, but he wants to be paid as one of the top receivers in the NFL now.

Mystery finally revealed: What Cowboys have to gain by waiting to extend their star players – Dan Rogers, Blogging The Boys
Yes, it is possible to still believe in what the Cowboys front office has done this offseason.

As mentioned before, higher average annual salaries don’t represent a player’s true cost to the team. This is very important to understand. Their true cost is the ratio of the total cost of their contract to the total budget (league salary cap) throughout their contract. This is shown as cap % in the column on the far right.

The Cowboys’ front office waited for these new deals to use them as a guideline of where their players should fall. It gives them some extra negotiating power. The front office will try to fit Dak somewhere between Lawrence and Burrow and likely land close to what Justin Herbert and Lamar Jackson are making, even though Prescott will end up with the highest average annual salary of anyone in the league.

Similarly, Lamb should fall somewhere between A.J. Brown and Justin Jefferson, even though his average annual salary will exceed that of Tyreek Hill. On the surface, it will look as if waiting costs the Cowboys more money, but it will have cost them a little less.

Put the pressure on the player/agent

For Prescott and Lamb, there was never a time when the Cowboys’ front office could have landed a good bargain price for their services. League rules prohibit negotiating a new deal before the first three years of their rookie contract is up and by that time, Prescott and Lamb were already proven commodities in the NFL. And nothing’s changed. They remain costly expenditures.

The timing of a contract extension is very important to a player as they want to sign a new deal when their stock is high. Players must carefully weigh the pros/cons of signing now versus waiting. Dragging it out could land them more money later, but it also comes with more risk. There are a lot of circumstances that can affect a player’s value, most notably being a severe injury. When faced with an opportunity to secure a large amount of money, it’s hard to pass it up. Players want to get a deal done. This explains why many will resort to holding out to force the front office’s hand.

We’ve heard the phrase “deadlines make deals” so much that we’re sick of it, but it’s said so often because it holds a lot of water. People talk so much about a player’s leverage but oftentimes overlook the leverage a front office has. Teams will use deadlines to put more pressure on players to get a deal done. That moves us nicely into the next factor.

A little compromise

It’s always about the money. The Cowboys are doing what they’re doing because they want to gain a favorable outcome. They hope they can work something in the contract language that will benefit them. One big driver is the length of terms. A longer deal will bring down the cap % because of the larger budget those later years provide. That was one of the conflicting points last time during Prescott’s deal as the Cowboys couldn’t get a five-year deal done and had to settle for four.

Cowboys’ 7th-round pick may be needed early and often in 2024 – Shane Taylor, Inside The Star
The Cowboys want to give last year’s first round pick Mazi Smith every chance to have a bounce back season under Mike Zimmer, but also have other options waiting for an opportunity at defensive tackle.

Seventh-round pick Justin Rogers began his collegiate career at Kentucky.

He stayed for three seasons before he transferred to Auburn in January 2023.

He was a highly-touted recruit out of Oak Park High School in Detroit, Michigan, Rogers was rated by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 52 overall player in the Class of 2020.

Rogers appeared in 13 games at Auburn, totaling 17 tackles (nine solo), two tackles for loss and a sack.

At Kentucky, Rogers tallied 61 total tackles (19 solo), five tackles for loss, and three sacks in 33 games.

He doesn’t jump off the screen, but he is good at what he does.

What He Brings

Normally a 7th-round pick would not have such a good chance to make early noise in the NFL, but in this case, he does.

The Cowboys are so thin at defensive tackle that anybody at this point would help them.

He is only 6-foot-2 and 330 pounds, but one this he did do well was set the gap in the run defense everywhere he played.

He only had one sack, so he isn’t going to be stacking numbers up if he sees the field.

11 Cowboys veterans in danger of not making 2024 roster – KD Drummond, The Cowboys Wire
The Cowboys may have more open spots on the depth chart than assumed, if veterans Ezekiel Elliott and C.J. Goodwin are actually in danger of missing the cut.

RB Ezekiel Elliott

Ezekiel Elliott not making the roster would, by far, be the most surprising outcome of this year’s training camp, but it can’t be wholly dismissed. While there isn’t another proven back on the roster, $1.6 million in guarantees isn’t enough to guarantee a player a roster spot. There would just have to be so much to happen for this to come to fruition. A lackluster running back room would have to have at least three players jump up and grab the coaching staff’s attention and even then, Elliott would have to have zero juice left in the tank because his intelligence alone makes him a worthwhile stash even if he wasn’t a regular part of the rotation.

ST CJ Goodwin

Goodwin has been an absolute staple in the Cowboys’ special teams groups since 2018, predating the arrival of current ST coach John Fassel in 2020. His missing most of 2023 won’t help, but more importantly another new defensive coordinator arriving. Goodwin is by trade a CB and if his roster spot is needed for someone who can actually help on defense, he could be a casualty.

12) Have they gotten better or worse at CB? – Staff, DallasCowboys.com
Dallas will be searching for new depth at cornerback in Oxnard, but their potential starting group could be one of the league’s best under the coaching of Zimmer and Al Harris.

12) Have they gotten better or worse at CB?

Nick Harris: Is it possible to say the Cowboys are “about the same” at cornerback? When you look at the majority of how last season played out, Dallas will basically replace Stephon Gilmore with a healthy Trevon Diggs while returning a first-team All-Pro member in DaRon Bland. At the nickel spot, Jourdan Lewis is back for another go-around to man down the slot. If Diggs can return to full form in 2024, I would say this group definitely has the opportunity to be better than last year’s group. With two ball-hawks like Bland and Diggs locking down the corners, it could be turnover city for Mike Zimmer’s defense. Additionally, I like the depth of this year’s group just a smidge more with the addition of Caelen Carson.

Kyle Youmans It’s hard to get better at a position group after losing a former defensive player of the year and savvy veteran. However, from the end of last season to the beginning of this one, Dallas is more equipped at the position. Stephon Gilmore did some great things last season, and the 2023 Cowboys would not have had the same success throughout the year without him in the fold. But regaining a healthy Trevon Diggs and pairing him with a much more confident DaRon Bland on the boundary could be one of the best duos in football. Something that wouldn’t be possible without Bland’s growth last season, where he performed much better in a new role outside the slot. With Diggs and Bland controlling the outside, it allows full confidence and snaps for Jourdan Lewis in the nickel, which has been his recipe for success in the past.

Patrik Walker: I love this question because it’s one oozing in the finesse of two items. On one hand, deciding to not (yet?) re-sign Stephon Gilmore weakens the position group, considering he was the stabilizing force outside of DaRon Bland when Trevon Diggs was lost to a torn ACL in mid-September. But the thing is Diggs is returning, a massive variable in this discussion that seemingly washes the loss of Gilmore when combined with the fact this isn’t the same Bland as it was one year ago. He’s gone from being a breakout rookie nickel corner to a historic boundary corner who will now play opposite Diggs going forward — a tidbit that combines with the re-signing of Jourdan Lewis to explain why Gilmore isn’t in Dallas right now. The Big 3 at CB is nasty work right now, and that means the only question now is the same as last year: who will step up behind them as rotational pieces/injury insurance? That means, for me, it’s not worse, but it’s instead arguably better, all things considered (p.s. I’d still re-sign Gilmore, though).