CeeDee Lamb’s extension answers the easier question for Cowboys. But Dak Prescott represents a trickier issue.

Stephen Jones knew his vantage point weeks ago in training camp.

The Cowboys executive vice president quoted his father, team owner Jerry Jones, in what he called “an old Jerryism.”

“Santa Claus doesn’t put the bicycle under the Christmas tree every year,” Jones told Yahoo Sports in an Aug. 13 interview. “You gotta come to grips that you gotta pay for it.”

Monday, the Cowboys “came to grips,” in Jones’ words, with paying their 2020 first-round draft pick a handsome contract.

The Cowboys and CeeDee Lamb agreed to a four-year extension worth $136 million with $100 million guaranteed, multiple sources with knowledge of the negotiation confirmed to Yahoo Sports.

The deal is easily the Cowboys’ biggest “offseason” move for those who consider the day before final roster cuts still the offseason. This deal inches Dallas a step closer to the urgency many fans have hoped the franchise would show to snap a decades’ long drought of deep postseason play.

And yet — the Cowboys know that Lamb’s contract is only one of the proverbial Christmas presents on their wish list.

Quarterback Dak Prescott and edge rusher Micah Parsons are also going to get megadeals from Dallas or elsewhere before long, Prescott’s expiring contract the more urgent of the two.

Jones said Aug. 13 that Parsons was “not pushing to do anything right now,” though his salary will jump from $2.99 million to $21.32 million for his fifth-year option even if a more lucrative deal is not reached by the 2025 season.

So as the Cowboys score one contractual win Monday, they also advance down a road dotted with plenty more questions.

Lamb will celebrate earning the most expensive receiver contract for a team also paying upper-echelon money to a quarterback, while the franchise celebrates Lamb’s extension trailing rather than exceeding Justin Jefferson’s market-defining, four-year, $140 million deal with $110 million guaranteed.

“Obviously you plan for Dak and you plan for CeeDee,”…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ceedee-lambs-extension-answers-the-easier-question-for-cowboys-but-dak-prescott-represents-a-trickier-issue-003041596.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-08-27 00:30:41

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