Dallas City News

It was reported over the back half of this past week that the Dallas Cowboys are offering CeeDee Lamb south of $33M per year in terms of latest discussions around a contract extension for him. That is obviously quite the large amount of money, but not the absolute top of the market at the position.

As far as the market is concerned Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson set it this past offseason at $35M per year. It appears though that the APY is not necessarily the only issue for Lamb at the moment, at least according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo who discussed the matter on Saturday.

“You’ve seen the reported numbers that are out there. About 33. I’ve seen higher than 33. I’ve seen lower than 33. My understanding is it’s around 33 and for Lamb that’s still not good enough. The top of the market is 35 with Justin Jefferson so he wants that to come up. And the structure, I’m told via sources familiar with Lamb’s thinking, needs to be worked on as well. Cash flow, guarantees, how that’s going to be structured on the front half of the deal. So there’s still a lot of work to be done here.”

Garafolo notes that the APY must get closer to the top of market but that the cash flow and guarantees (among other things, seemingly) need to be tended to as well. Unfortunately he notes that there is still “a lot of work” needing to be done.

You would think that with the Jefferson deal so far in the rearview mirror that the template would have been laid out. But while the you or someone else may feel that Lamb is being unreasonable wanting to reach or surpass that established line, it brings up how the Cowboys waiting in general for the market to be set is part of the problem. Had they been willing to set the market themselves earlier on with Lamb they would not necessarily be in this position.