It wasn’t a big deal when Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb missed the team’s voluntary workouts waiting for a contract extension. And even though it earned him a five-figure fine, it wasn’t necessarily a problem that he skipped minicamp earlier this month in protest.
But the Cowboys are set to reconvene in Oxnard, Calif. in under a month for the beginning of a training camp that looks to be massively important to the immediate future of the franchise, and reports suggest that without a new agreement in place, Lamb is prepared to stay away from that, too.
According to Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News, the 25-year-old who led the league in receptions last year and set a single-season club record for receiving yards “is expected to miss training camp if he doesn’t get a new deal.”
Lamb is currently slated to play on the fifth-year option that the Cowboys placed on him and would be due $17.99 million for the 2024 season. The Vikings’ Justin Jefferson, the Eagles’ A.J. Brown, the Lions’ Amon-Ra St. Brown, and the Dolphins’ Jaylen Waddle have all signed huge contracts in the past two months, each of them worth over $28.25 million average annual value.
It appears that Lamb is tired of coming in at a discount, and therefore may not be coming in at all until it’s rectified.
Seven-time first-team All-Pro guard Zack Martin employed a similar approach last year, holding out of camp for roughly three weeks before the club granted him a raise that amounted to an extra $8 million over the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Martin later admitted that the holdout impacted his readiness for the 2023 season opener and affected his play for much of the season.
If Lamb is absent from camp, soon-to-be-31-year-old Brandin Cooks would serve as the offense’s top receiving threat. Behind him is a collection of young and mostly inexperienced wide receivers who- combined- accounted for all of 40 catches last season.
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The Cowboys say they’re not worried about Lamb not being ready to line up and go. He’s been working out on his own, and quarterback Dak Prescott explained that the two would log some time together over the summer, as has become tradition for Prescott and his pass-catchers.
But in an offseason when there are so many concerning details for Cowboys fans to read into about how their team is handling its business and its superstar players, a training camp no-show from Lamb would only ratchet up the angst a few more clicks.
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