Why CeeDee Lamb’s absence from Cowboys’ voluntary workouts is no big deal

Are you at all worried about the CeeDee Lamb situation?

The Dallas Cowboys are making the news just days before the NFL draft. However, it’s not about making a trade for draft picks or acquiring a player; it’s about the absence of CeeDee Lamb from voluntary workouts to begin Dallas’ offseason program. It’s imperfect timing that on the same day of this news, the Philadelphia Eagles agreed to a three-year extension with their wide receiver DeVonta Smith, taken in the draft a year after CeeDee Lamb in 2021. Predictably, Cowboys fans are up in arms as the Cowboys are beaten to the negotiating table by another franchise and sign one of their premier players long before the Cowboys can clinch a deal with one of their star players.

In place of winning using the X’s and O’s on the gridiron, the Cowboys will be competing to win the game of crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s on Legal Zoom in contractual volleyball with several of their prominent players. Quarterback Dak Prescott’s contract status is at a standstill with the team. All-Pro defender Micah Parsons and CeeDee Lamb intend to skip voluntary workouts. Yet, there’s no reason to expect Lamb’s deal won’t be done at some point.

Granted, fans are asking why not today or anytime sooner. Why must the Cowboys procrastinate contract talks instead of showing urgency to retain their best players nearing the end of their rookie contracts? The slow progress can lead to the player looking like the bad guy by wanting the best contract for themselves and their family. As we’ve seen before, the ongoing talks through the media lead up to a crescendo where a portion of the fanbase is vexed at the front office for not doing a deal sooner, and another portion is ready to part ways with the subject of the negotiation, and the other relieved it’s over.

Again, let’s remind ourselves this has happened before. Dez Bryant’s contract negotiation lasted well into the offseason, with Bryant having no intention of playing if a new deal couldn’t get done. Eventually, both sides agreed, and Bryant returned to work—the same for offensive guard Zack Martin. Martin held out for a new contract before agreeing to a new deal with the Cowboys in the late summer of 2018. Again, there’s no reason to expect that Lamb won’t get a new deal. It boils down to money and, unfortunately, occasional mudslinging by the front office.

A thing to consider is the market value. Many fans can get trapped by the numbers of these contracts and begin to make it a matter of who they feel is better than the other to justify how much a player should be paid. That’s not how things work. For elite level players, the highest-paid is usually predicated on who was paid the most recently until another player gets their money, and so on. In short, the sooner Lamb’s deal gets done, the sooner his contract will look like a bargain juxtaposed to who gets paid at his position in the subsequent months.

The NFL salary cap increased to $255.4M, roughly $30M more from last season. Prepare yourself. These deals will get pricey, and the numbers will be enormous, but that’s the nature of the business. Last year, we predicted that Lamb’s new contract would cost the Cowboys 32.7M annually for five seasons at a total of 163.5M, which still seems plausible. Whether you think the Cowboys can do better than CeeDee Lamb, wish the front office would move faster on negotiations, or want to get this done, it’ll be over soon enough.