Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is not like most owners. While many are hands-off and delegate responsibilities to subordinates, Jones remains heavily involved in the Cowboys' day-to-day operations, acting as the team's owner and general manager.
Naturally, because of his involvement, Jones was questioned about why the Cowboys have seemingly dragged their feet on re-signing a few of their key players; notably, quarterback Dak Prescott is entering the final year of his contract and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb is holding out for a contract extension as Dallas training camp begins. In a long, bizarre answer, Jones likened himself to an option quarterback and Kansas City Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes.
“We are so involved in trying to see where we are with our situations that that is a major part of seeing the leaves fall, seeing the time go by, seeing this day and this week, how they go by,” Jones began. “And by the way, fault — I have, in my life, played option quarterback so many times and wait until the last leaf on the tree. And if you want to picture a pure option quarterback going out to the sideline, I have run that ball and kept it and not handed it off to the back, not pitch it back, not throw it, and I have run that thing all the way out to the sideline before I made the decision because I couldn't get whatever it took — it wasn't right for me — to make the decision.
“So what our fans, what you're seeing, what we deal with is we're buying time. We're option quarterbacking and we're going on out toward the sidelines and we haven't handed it off, we haven't pitched it, we're trying to make our mind up what we're going to do. Does that sound like Mahomes to you? A little bit? OK. It do. It really do. So having said that, I'm just trying to give you a description here; that's what we're doing, and we're waiting for something to happen in the morning.”
CeeDee Lamb holds out for new Cowboys contract
Since being selected with the 17th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, CeeDee Lamb has totaled more than 5,000 receiving yards and 35 touchdowns in his career. Lamb is coming off of his best season in the league yet; he caught a career-high 135 passes for 1,749 yards and 12 touchdowns, in addition to another 113 rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns. He earned All-Pro First Team honors for the first time in his career and was named a Pro Bowler for a third consecutive season.
Lamb is set to make $17.99 million this season as part of his fifth-year team option, which is the final guaranteed year on his contract. Naturally, with the recent success and his financial future up in the air, Lamb is angling for a big deal with Jerry Jones and the Cowboys before he arrives to training camp.
He presumably is looking to become one of the highest-paid wide receivers in the league, which would be in the $30 million or $35 million-per-year range. Four of the five largest WR deals in terms of average annual salary have come this year; Miami Dolphins' Jaylen Waddle, Detroit Lions' Amon-Ra St. Brown, Philadelphia Eagles' A.J. Brown, and Minnesota Vikings' Justin Jefferson have each inked deals worth at least $28.25 million per year in 2024. Jefferson seemingly reset the market with a four-year, $140 million deal with $110 million guaranteed.
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