Stephen Jones had known his point of view for weeks at 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 bike under the Christmas tree every year,” Jones told Yahoo Sports in an interview on August 13. “You have to accept that you have to pay for it.”
On Monday, the Cowboys “agreed,” in Jones’ words, to pay their 2020 first-round draft pick a handsome contract.
The Cowboys and CeeDee Lamb have agreed to a four-year extension worth $136 million with $100 million guaranteed, multiple sources with knowledge of the deal confirmed to Yahoo Sports.
The deal is easily the Cowboys’ biggest move of the “offseason” for those who consider the day before final roster cuts to still be the offseason. This deal brings Dallas one step closer to the urgency many fans hoped the franchise would show in breaking a decades-long drought of deep play in the postseason.
And yet the Cowboys know Lamb’s contract is just one of the proverbial Christmas gifts on their wish list.
Quarterback Dak Prescott and defensive back Micah Parsons are also set to land big deals with Dallas or other players before long, with Prescott’s expiring contract the more pressing of the two.
Jones said on Aug. 13 that Parsons was “not pushing to do anything right now,” though his salary will rise from $2.99 million to $21.32 million for his fifth-year option even if a more lucrative deal is not reached for the 2025 season.
As the Cowboys secure a contract victory on Monday, they also move down a path fraught with many more questions.
Lamb will celebrate landing the most expensive wide receiver contract for a team that also pays top-tier money to a quarterback, while the franchise celebrates that Lamb’s extension trails, rather than surpasses, Justin Jefferson’s market-defining four-year, $140 million deal with $110 million guaranteed.
“Obviously, you plan for Dak and you plan for CeeDee,” Jones said Aug. 13. “Negotiations remain very cordial and everyone’s goal is to be a Cowboy going forward and find solutions to their contract challenges, find solutions that allow us to 1) have all three of them and 2) build a good team around them.”
The signing of Lamb puts the Cowboys 33 percent of the way toward that goal. The deal should also give Prescott more confidence in the targets he’ll have if he does agree to an extension.
But will it happen? And if so, when?
In the Cowboys’ contractual orbit, who and what comes next?
What could stand in the way of Prescott’s deal with the Cowboys?
Jones said “our goal” was to extend Prescott’s contract “before the start of the season.”
Two key factors could slow down that outcome.
First, teams often say they want to re-sign their star players without confirming that they want them at the financial level the player is asking for, and sometimes the market dictates. There’s no question the Cowboys would want their current $40 million quarterback at a price similar to what they could spend on a talented, well-paid supporting cast. But do the Cowboys want to pay Prescott the $55-60 million per year that the fast-paced quarterback market might dictate?
Thirteen quarterbacks have reached extensions with a higher average annual value than Prescott since his 2020 extension.
While the Cowboys will point to Prescott’s poor playoff resume in negotiations, Dallas won 12 games last season as Prescott led the league with 36 touchdowns, finishing second in the MVP race.
The second hurdle is more atypical. In most quarterback negotiations, the leverage is heavily weighted toward the club. Teams often negotiate with years of control remaining on a player’s existing contract, not to mention other control tools like franchise and transition tags. Some teams might even threaten to trade a player.
The Cowboys have surprisingly little leverage when it comes to negotiating with Prescott.
Their ninth-year starter is entering the final year of his contract, negating the ability to offset a costly upcoming contract with a reasonable current deal. Prescott already won his last negotiation fight for a four-year extension instead of the Cowboys’ preferred five-year deal. He’ll likely push again to get back on the market in a preferred time frame, reducing the Cowboys’ salary-cap management flexibility.
And then there’s the biggest leverage Prescott has: He has no-trade and no-tag clauses in his contract.
Put another way: If the Cowboys don’t reach an extension with Prescott this year, they can’t “control” him, they can’t force him to play for them.
Would Prescott prefer that?
Hopefully the Cowboys will show Dak CeeDee a lot
Prescott has no intention of leaving the Cowboys anytime soon.
Just as Mark Twain once said that “reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” so too are any confident reports of a divorce between Prescott and the Cowboys.
But it is a possibility.
And maybe there is a world where it is better for everyone.
The Cowboys and Prescott must ask themselves as they negotiate: Can we win a Super Bowl together after eight years of trying and failing? Year 9 was a lucky charm for Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts, as well as for Washington and Joe Theismann (his seventh starter). John Elway and the Broncos went 14 seasons without a ring before winning in 15 and 16.
And yet Elway and the Broncos had reached three Super Bowls in his first eight years. Manning reached the conference championship on his sixth try. Theismann was technically in his seventh season as a starter when he won it all.
The Cowboys and Prescott haven’t made it to an NFC title game or a Super Bowl together. It’s possible that something will change. Do they want to keep trying?
Prescott is thinking about this as he considers his next contract.
“I deserve it,” he told Yahoo Sports. But also, “this game is judged by winning the Super Bowl and I understand people’s angst, maybe their angst and me not accomplishing that. Hey, if these people want to move on, it’s a business.
“It’s a two-way street. Things have to go well from my point of view, too.”
Bottom line: Prescott could choose not to push for an extension — or even agree to one — in the coming weeks and months. He could again decide not to sign with Dallas in the spring, which would put a strain on free agency.
Will he find stronger teams than the Cowboys? The New York Giants, Las Vegas Raiders, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers are among the possible suitors.
Prescott is in no rush to make a decision.
“The best way to say it is I’m free,” Prescott said. “Saying I’m free means I’m not in a rush, whether it’s before camp, during the season or at the end of the season when other people have opportunities.”
For now, there’s at least one more year of opportunity for the Cowboys’ offense led by Prescott and Lamb. Lamb posted videos this week practicing getting in and out of routes in the sand, as well as working on body-contortion catches in the gym. Dallas is hoping for a smooth return thanks to his workout routine and pre-existing chemistry with Prescott.
The Cowboys also expect Lamb to remain active on the field. The Joneses didn’t want to compensate a receiver so generously without that guarantee.
“I think he’s going to touch the ball a lot,” Stephen Jones said. “For what we’re going to have to pay him, he better do it. I told (head coach) Mike (McCarthy) that things can’t change. He has to be targeted 12 to 15 times a game, you have to give it to him a couple more times. So I don’t see that changing one bit.
“When you pay receivers that amount of money, they can catch the ball eight to twelve times a game, fifteen times, occasionally fifteen.
“He is our number one man.”