David Helman
Dallas Cowboys Insider
To borrow Jerry Jones’ own metaphor, we’re skipping straight past summer and into autumn with all the leaves that are starting to hit the ground.
It’s only been one month since the Cowboys owner and general manager made headlines with his contract strategy. Asked why there was so little movement in the effort to re-sign his Big 3 of Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons, Jones chose foliage as his metaphor.
“We’d like to see more leaves fall,” Jones said at the time. “We’d like to see more action. It’s called option quarterback. I’ve spent my life [playing] option quarterback. I want to see some more cards played.”
As far as Lamb and the wide receiver market, we have our latest reminder that the cards are flying furiously. On Thursday morning, the Dolphins signed star receiver Jaylen Waddle to a three-year, $84.75 million extension with an impressive $76 million of that guaranteed.
Waddle is now the fourth receiver from the 2021 NFL Draft class, along with Amon-Ra St. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Nico Collins, to sign a mega extension. It’s an eyebrow-raising amount of movement considering these players all have a year remaining on their rookie contracts, not to mention the franchise and transition tags that are often applied in these situations. Throw in the early $96 million extension that A.J. Brown signed last month, and it feels like a downright shocking level of activity.
But it becomes a lot more understandable when framed against what’s still to come — or rather, who is still to sign.
We’ve talked endlessly at this point about the deals coming down the pipe for Lamb, as well as Vikings All-Pro Justin Jefferson. With each passing deal, it starts to feel like other receivers are slotting themselves in under a couple of paydays that are about to blow the roof off the market.
The final numbers are tough to guess, but you can see where this is heading. Three receivers now…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/how-cowboys-ceedee-lamb-impacted-exploding-wr-market
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Publish date : 2024-05-30 23:28:11
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