Dallas City News

We are two weeks away from the NFL season’s first Sunday slate kicking off. Scott Hanson will be at the ready and prepared to weave us through all of the action.

When that moment comes we will have to wait a bit to see the Dallas Cowboys as they do not play until the afternoon in Week 1. That window will see Dallas visit the Cleveland Browns and a former player of theirs in Amari Cooper. Needless to say the game will be fun and interesting and everything we love Week 1 to be.

It goes without saying that Dak Prescott will be under center for the Cowboys given his involvement in all activities to this point in the season. Whether or not CeeDee Lamb is there though remains a question given that he has not reported for any team activity since the offseason began, a time that stretches through the Oxnard portion of training camp and all of the preseason.

According to the latest report around the situation, the Cowboys hope to change that.

The Cowboys reportedly want to take care of both Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb over the next two weeks

It was reported before the weekend began in earnest that the Cowboys were set to speak with CeeDee Lamb before Monday arrived. On Sunday morning, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler appeared on SportsCenter and was asked about the Dak Prescott situation and answered the CeeDee Lamb one before getting to it. We continue to hear that the team “wants” to get it done.

“The situation is, talks have been ongoing, but they’re really every couple of days. The stage is set for Dallas to place the urgency on CeeDee Lamb, the wide receiver. To get that deal done it’s going to cost them well above $30M per year. CeeDee Lamb’s trying to get as close as he can to that Justin Jefferson market and that $35M. So they’re trying to find a sweet spot on all those points. I expect Lamb to be done first. They’re going to try to get Prescott done before Week 1 as well and double down on both these guys and spend a ton of money. It’s still unclear whether they can pull this off. Prescott, and you talk to people in and around the situation, he’s well aware of how well he can do in free agency if he were to let this ride out, play well again, put up a huge QBR and then be there in March for $60M a year. Whatever it’s going to cost. It’s going to cost a lot. I don’t think both sides want that. They want to try to shake this out with a deal, but it’s going to take a lot of leg work over the next two weeks.”

Words like “want” and “try” and “expect” have been said ad nauseam since the offseason first began for the team. We are about three months removed from the Justin Jefferson deal referenced getting done in the first place, and while it was unfortunate that Dallas did not beat that deal getting done, more than enough time has passed for them to figure this thing out.

The same can be said of Prescott obviously. That the Cowboys have an overwhelming tendency to let their most important contracts reach a boiling point is undeniable at this point.

Update: 1:55pm ET

NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero chimed in on this subject himself on Sunday afternoon.

“CeeDee Lamb remains a holdout as he has been throughout the course of training camp, but I do sense there is some optimism in Dallas that that could be coming to an end soon. The sides have communicated a lot over the past 10 days. Everyone involved knows where the other stands, in terms of what it’s going to take to get this done. And CeeDee Lamb is not pushing to be the highest-paid receiver. If and when this extension gets finalized I would anticipate it comes in right underneath Justin Jefferson. So it should not be a super complicated deal to work out. Having said that the Cowboys historically, certainly in recent years, have moved slowly on a lot of these types of deals. Time now is of the essence. The regular season begins two weeks from today against the Cleveland Browns, you’re going to need to get CeeDee Lamb out onto the field if he’s going to be ready to roll in Week 1. So a critical couple of days here as the Cowboys and CeeDee Lamb try to finally reach an accord.”

We will see.