The Cowboys have spent 25 days in Southern California preparing for the 2024 NFL season.
Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb missed all of it.
There were no practice sessions, meetings, team dinners, chats in the lunch room or extra practice work with the JUGS machines.
Nobody associated with the Cowboys — from player, coach and front office executive — is upset with Lamb staying away.
It’s the business of the NFL.
Lamb is holding out for a new contract. Before the Cowboys departed for Saturday’s preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders, the two sides met Thursday over the phone in an attempt to finalize a deal.
The Cowboys are offering the receiver slightly under $33 million per season, a person with knowledge of the talks told The Dallas Morning News.
What Lamb is looking for isn’t known.
The figure of nearly $33 million per season would give him the second-highest average salary for a wide receiver in the NFL behind the Vikings’ Justin Jefferson ($35 million). It also pushes Lamb past the Eagles A.J. Brown ($32 million per season).
In June, Jefferson signed the largest contract for a non-quarterback: a four-year, $140 million deal with $110 million guaranteed.
Lamb isn’t seeking the largest contract for a non-quarterback.
Cowboys’ executive vice president Stephen Jones said that’s what Lamb wanted at the team’s introductory news conference on July 27 but, according to Jones, Lamb reached out and said that’s not the case.
The largest contracts for non-quarterbacks are for Jefferson and 49ers pass rusher Nick Bosa, who signed a five-year, $170 million deal with $122.5 million in guarantees last year. That deal, which averages $34 million per year, is the highest for a defensive player. Those figures are something to look at when Cowboys’ edge rusher Micah Parsons comes to the table next spring.
When it comes to Lamb, getting him closer to Jefferson’s money, or surpassing it, will end the holdout.
As for that work on the field, the Cowboys are not worried about Lamb’s absences.
“CeeDee is going to be ready,” offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said. “If the system were different, that always adds different challenges. He knows what we do, he and Dak [Prescott] have what I would say 1,000 to 10,000 banked reps together.”
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Last season, Lamb broke out at the perfect time emerging as the No. 1 threat in the offense.
He led the NFL in catches (135), finished second in receiving yards (1,749), was third in touchdowns (12) and had a 63.5% catch rate.
During training camp, Lamb’s absence has opened the door for younger receivers such as Jalen Brooks, Tyron Billy-Johnson and Jalen Cropper to fight for a roster spot. Jalen Tolbert, entering his third season, is proving he can become a reliable No. 3 receiver. Of course, you can’t forget veteran Brandin Cooks, who was called a coach by Schottenheimer. Head coach Mike McCarthy cited this stat: Two out of every three plays in training camp practices, Cooks either catches a touchdown pass or converts a big play.
The receiver group seems strong without Lamb.
But it needs Lamb.
“Honestly, it’s great for the defense, not having CeeDee here,” Parsons said of the offensive formations the Cowboys’ defense views in practices. “When he’s here, he’s way more destructive towards us. But he offers us a look that we can’t see nowhere else. And I’m pretty sure [cornerback Trevon Diggs] and them are going to be happy to have him back and getting that look and Dak’s going to be happy to have him back.”
The business is the business, though.
At some point, the Cowboys will get a deal done.
Last year, it took three weeks to strike a deal with Zack Martin that ended his holdout. In 2019, running back Ezekiel Elliott returned to work from a holdout a week before the start of the season.
It might take a moment, but the Cowboys do finalize these deals.
While Lamb isn’t here, his conversations with teammates continue.
“So we have our talks but at the end of the day, me and CeeDee and all of us, we kind of know what it is,” Parsons said. “CeeDee is a part of the brotherhood. Whether he likes it or not he knows he’s not going nowhere. The business side, they going to take care of him.”