Jerry Jones clarified why he doesn’t feel urgency to sign Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb. But how clear is it?

LOS ANGELES — Jerry Jones was ready to back down.

At least the owner of the Dallas Cowboys team was willing to clarify his negotiating position.

How badly do you want to reunite with All-Pro receiver CeeDee Lamb?

Desire and urgency, Jones explained Sunday, are not synonymous.

“It has nothing to do with how we feel about what CeeDee Lamb means to the Dallas Cowboys and what we hope he will be in the future,” Jones said Sunday from SoFi Stadium before his team’s preseason loss to the Los Angeles Rams. “I think I got myself into trouble the other day when I said, ‘Look, we’re in no rush for CeeDee (to come back).’”

The lack of urgency comes with the Cowboys’ regular-season opener against the Cleveland Browns being four weeks away, Jones said. He added that Lamb would not have played in this week’s preseason game and that the team’s ownership is not concerned about Lamb’s chemistry as he enters his fifth year with Dak Prescott as quarterback.

This isn’t the first time Dallas has waited to sign a premium contract; the Cowboys’ mantra of “deadlines make deals” for their stars is increasingly becoming “until there’s a deadline, we’re not making any deals.”

On the team’s current roster, Prescott, running back Ezekiel Elliott and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence have all received deals at the deadlines for free agency, the start of the season and surgery, respectively. Players and coaches alike know that Lamb’s deal is a normal occurrence and largely out of their control.

Still, what impact do the Cowboys’ negotiation strategies have on the team’s psyche? For an organization that’s gone 28 years since its last conference title game, let alone the Super Bowl, it’s worth wondering.

“I completely understand the angst that comes with someone saying something about whether they miss you or not,” Jones said. “Well, CeeDee: they miss you. But they don’t miss you out here competing.

“And it doesn’t put any pressure on us at any time.”

‘Facing each other’: How recent Cowboys history explains Lamb’s prolonged absence

Elliott’s decision not to run in the 2019 election was very similar to Lamb’s. Its outcome tells us why Lamb is doing what he is doing and what the most likely outcome of his decision will be.

Elliott was out of training camp for 40 days while awaiting his first contract extension. He trained in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, while his teammates spent weeks in Southern California and then returned to Dallas.

The Cowboys and Elliott didn’t agree to an extension until four days before the start of the season. Dallas didn’t save money on the contract by waiting an entire offseason to sign Elliott, instead giving him a record six-year extension worth $90 million, with $50 million guaranteed.

Along the way, Jones publicly laid out a stance similar to his comments about Lamb regarding a lack of urgency. Tensions rose when Jones was asked about Elliott during the preseason and responded, “Zeke who?”

The moment surprised Elliott, just as Jones’ recent comments prompted Lamb to tweet “lol.” What could Lamb be experiencing?

“It’s really tough, because you go through your first three or four years and everyone’s on the same side,” Elliott told reporters at Cowboys training camp. “This is the first time they’re facing each other now. So you have to have a little bit of thick skin… but at the end of the day, we all have the same goal and we all support CeeDee.

“It will be done.”

Elliott isn’t the only one who thinks it’s all inevitable. Coach Mike McCarthy has said the same thing about how happy he’ll be to see Lamb “when he gets there,” and he hasn’t expressed himself in terms of “if” or “when” Lamb’s future will be.

“We have full confidence in his approach to work and that he’ll come in here ready to play,” McCarthy said Friday. “When that time comes, we’ll do it like he never left.”

Before Lamb left, he was in his prime. Last season, Lamb caught a league-high 135 passes from Prescott for 1,749 yards (second behind Tyreek Hill’s 1,799) and 12 touchdowns (third behind Hill and Mike Evans’ 13).

Lamb and Prescott have worked together in the offseason and have communicated. Prescott, who is also entering the final year of his contract, does not blame Lamb for not signing.

The receiver reached out to Prescott to wish him well after his birthday on July 29.

“That led to some conversations as well,” Prescott told reporters. “He wants to come back, he’s ready to come back, hoping this gets resolved for him. I know I am, too. Hopefully we can get him back sooner rather than later.”

“But I know he’s working hard, eager and ready to get back with the boys.”

Are the Cowboys better if they rush or if they slow down with Lamb’s resolve?

The story goes that Jones will sign Lamb to a contract before Week 1. League executives believe Lamb will be in the building at that time, too.

One executive who has negotiated high-profile deals said a holdout’s logic is independent of emotions.

“Resisting is a path to mutual destruction,” the NFC executive said. “They do it because they think it will hurt us. And it will hurt you, too.”

The executive responded to the most common refrains criticizing the Cowboys, arguing three points for the current delay in the negotiation.

First up: How often does a team win the Super Bowl? because Their top receiver on the market? The Kansas City Chiefs have won the last two Super Bowls after trading away the league’s most productive receiver in Hill.

The second: The Cowboys can’t just factor in a mega-receiver contract like the Cincinnati Bengals’, with receiver Ja’Marr Chase remaining a year after quarterback Joe Burrow cashed in. The Cowboys also aren’t in the same boat as the San Francisco 49ers and Brandon Aiyuk, whose trade considerations precede quarterback Brock Purdy’s one-year trading window but also benefit from the certainty that top edge rusher Nick Bosa’s deal was settled last year.

Instead, Dallas has to consider Lamb, Prescott and defenseman Micah Parsons for trade in the immediate future. If they can’t keep all three, who’s on the outside looking in? And if they choose to keep all three, is there reason to believe the deals will lead to a Lombardi Trophy when the trio hasn’t won a divisional-round game in three postseasons together?

And third: If Lamb is under contract this year, why not wait another year and have more certainty about his value?

“People pay players just because they are the best, not because they deserve it,” the executive said. “Sometimes certainty has value.”

Can a Cowboys team with a quarterback, a receiver and a head coach on expiring contracts afford to wait?

One AFC general manager saw Lamb’s denial differently, responding when asked how teams that pay big money to quarterbacks could also strike deals with receivers. The question came up after the Vikings gave Justin Jefferson an extension worth $35 million per year, as they benefit from their top two quarterbacks costing a combined $8.97 million against the salary cap this season. The Cowboys hover in a completely different range, at $58 million.

The GM’s response: Look at the Philadelphia Eagles. Quarterback Jalen Hurts, receivers AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith, and running back Saquon Barkley are all getting paid very high salaries for their positions.

Long contracts, a large number of voidable contract years and previous negotiations support his case. Salary gymnastics is at the disposal of the teams.

For now, the Cowboys will be looking to convince Lamb that he needs neither the price the Vikings gave Jefferson nor the assurance that the Bengals have already extended Chase’s contract and therefore he isn’t missing out on an impending raise on the market.

Lamb will try to argue the opposing points and hope the team makes him an offer he’s willing to accept before Sept. 8, when the stakes are even higher.

Elliott, who came very close to that breaking point, can empathize.

“It’s a shame when the business side of the game comes up,” Elliott said. “The most important thing is to stay fit, make sure you’re ready.”

“The deal will be finalized, but when it is finalized, be prepared to start working immediately.”