Dallas Cowboys sent CeeDee Lamb, Dak Prescott new offers - RJ Ochoa, Blogging The Boys
Per Calvin Watkins, the Cowboys sent contract offers to both CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott over the last few days.
Stephen Jones said he’s made a contract offer to CeeDee Lamb’s agent yesterday and another one to Dak Prescott’s agent a few days ago.
— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) July 27, 2024
Stephen sat down with the mothership’s Nick Eatman while in Oxnard (this was separate from the team’s opening press conference) and was asked about the Lamb situation specifically. Here is what he had to say.
“You know we’ve had discussions all offseason, with both CeeDee and Dak. And his representatives. These just aren’t easy deals. You’ve got a quarterback who was second in MVP in voting, obviously he’s going to be very well paid as he should be. As one of the top quarterbacks in this league.”
“We’re trying to work that around two players that could be, they’ll argue that they’re the best non-quarterbacks in this league. We’re blessed in that we have these three players, but it’s also a challenge from a salary cap standpoint and we have to continue to massage and have conversations with the players, with the agents in terms of how we ultimately can get a contract in place that’ll work well not only for this year but for the future.”
Latest Cowboys contract talks: CeeDee Lamb’s sticking point, Dak Prescott’s salary window - David Moore, DMN
Moore with some details on where the contract talks stand.
Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson tops the salary list at wide receiver with an average of $35 million after his recent deal. Philadelphia’s A.J. Brown is next with an average of $32 million, followed by Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown and Miami’s Tyreek Hill, both at $30 million.
See AlsoDak Prescott is at peace with this perhaps being his final year with the CowboysNFL 2024 - Hill, Chase, Prescott: Die Kandidaten für den nächsten Mega-VertragReaching an average salary that satisfies the Cowboys and Lamb isn’t the sticking point at the moment. The impasse is over the guaranteed portion of the contract, two people who are aware of the details said.
Jefferson received a guarantee of $110 million. Brown is next at $84 million.
That $26 million gulf is what the two sides are currently trying to navigate.
[...]
Three quarterbacks — [Jordan] Love, Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence and Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow — now sit at an average of $55 million. [Tua] Tagovailoa and Detroit’s Jared Goff, who also reached a new deal this offseason, are at $53 million.
The latest offer to Prescott puts him in that window in terms of average salary, two people who have seen the offer confirmed.
Cowboys’ slow-motion approach with CeeDee Lamb, Dak Prescott will cost Jerry Jones - Tim Cowlishaw, DMN
Cowlishaw takes issue with the Cowboys’ continuing stubbornness in contract talks.
The elder Jones said this week, “I’m good with math, I’m very good.” It just so happens that I am too, but you don’t really need to be skilled with numbers to note that the game has changed and being first or at least being quick to sign players is almost as important as the amount of money you pledge to pay. Former Eagles president Joe Banner said on X this week that the Cowboys’ stalling in negotiations was always considered an advantage in Philadelphia, and while it should be mentioned that a lot of former NFL folks like to take shots at the Cowboys on social media, certainly nothing has changed on Dallas’ slow-motion approach.
The notion that Jerry even suggested he was waiting for more information this offseason is scary, given that the information is never good for those on management’s side. In a league where the salary cap grows 10 percent a year, star players’ salaries are going to jump and rapidly. That’s how Dak’s four-year $160 million a year deal signed three years ago has him tied for 14th on the quarterback payroll today.
There was a time when Jerry was ahead of the curve in this game. He was battling the 49ers’ Carmen Policy in the early days of free agency, fighting to see who could outsmart the new cap rules faster by loading up bonus money and spreading it over years of salary. Other teams were slow or reluctant to catch on. At this same time, Jones was rewriting how the league and individual teams did business, and, following his lead, the money came pouring in. If you didn’t like Jerry then, it was because he was obnoxious but never because he was watching the game pass him by.
Contract extension not top of mind for Cowboys’ Micah Parsons - Todd Archer, ESPN
Archer explains that Parsons can’t see himself leaving the organization even if he had the chance.
“When you talk about career and legacy, I don’t think there’s a better career you can have than when you’re playing for the star and you have a chance to be the best with the star and you retire a Cowboy,” Parsons said. “You look at [Jason] Witten, you look at Michael Irvin, you look at Emmitt [Smith], you see they’re still in the community, still active. The star holds so much weight and the legacy that brings.
“Look at Charles [Haley], he still bothers me in the locker room every week. There’s nothing like wearing the star when you do it the right way. So in terms of being here, I want to be here my whole life. I plan on building a house here and being in Dallas forever. I love the city. I love the community. I love what it stands for.”
Cowboys training camp: Micah Parsons adjusting to changes, says, ‘I’m going to be all over’ - Saad Yousuf, The Athletic
Micah Parsons is getting a lot more reps at linebacker.
“Without getting into specifics, the way Mike Zimmer and that defensive staff are using him is going to be a really good challenge for us,” head coach Mike McCarthy said. “He looks good. Just playing a couple different positions, but yeah, I’m impressed with him.”
Another change for Parsons — one that should help him play a more hybrid role — is his weight. He’s at 240, losing 10 pounds to get back to his weight when he played at Penn State.
“I’m going to be all over, man,” Parsons said. “At the end of the day, they got to find me. That’s what I train for. There are some days I would go into the gym and do 500, 600 reps. It’s that muscle endurance, that conditioning that you’re training for. The long haul. Great trainers and great people helped me understand that more weight doesn’t always mean a positive thing. It’s just how you train.”
Shedding pounds should help him as a linebacker when he’s chasing pass catchers in the flat. That was on display during Friday’s practice, too, when he quickly got to KaVontae Turpin on a pass from Trey Lance.
Cowboys sign two UFL receivers after workouts - Nick Harris, DallasCowboys.com
The Cowboys added some helping hands at wide receiver on Saturday.
The Dallas Cowboys have made two additions to the roster in the beginning stages of training camp, as they signed wide receivers Deontay Burnett and Kelvin Harmon after successful workouts on Saturday.
The two additions serve as needed depth at the wide receiver position in the absence of CeeDee Lamb while he continues his training camp holdout and following a minor injury to rookie Ryan Flournoy that kept him with the rehab group during Friday’s practice.
Ezekiel Elliott Reveals Motivation for Cowboys Return: ‘I Had Unfinished Business!’ - Adam Schultz, Cowboys Country
Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott provided more clarity on why he chose to return to Dallas after playing with the New England Patriots last season.
Having spent seven of his eight years being a Cowboy, Elliott signed with the New England Patriots in 2023 and, after one year, finds himself back in Dallas. But why? “I think it was important for me to come back because I had unfinished business,” Elliott said. “I felt like I wanted to come back and be with my guys and take another spin at it.”
Zeke’s second coming in Dallas will look far different from his first, and it appears that he knows exactly what his role will be in 2024. With a young running back room in which no player has consistently gotten a genuine shot in NFL games, Zeke will be the player they lean on for guidance and experience, something he’s already doing.
“Just me kind of transforming from more of a lead-by-example to becoming more of a vocal leader,” Elliott said. “From 2016 to now, I’ve played 100 games, 1500 more touches, however many more touchdowns and yards. I have a lot more experience, I have a lot more to offer…doing whatever I can to help bring these younger guys along.”
Rico Dowdle is firming as RB2, but there is a log jam behind him. Malik Davis, Deuce Vaughn, Royce Freeman, Nathaniel Peat, Hunter Luepke, and Snooper Conner are all vying for a spot on the final roster.