CeeDee Lamb vs. 'Party-Pooper' Zack Martin: Cowboys Next New Contract?
The Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones are ready to spend big money. With Trevon Diggs inking a massive five-year deal, and with Malik Hooker just signing a new deal, there's no question about it: key pieces of "America Team's'' roster are staying put.
So ... Who's got next?
The Cowboys insist there is no "pecking order'' here, though a Dak Prescott extension is a major domino, as done a certain way it can add $20 million in cap room - thus making more space for the others.
Beyond Prescott, a logical candidate is CeeDee Lamb, with the plan all about keeping the receiver - who is under contract through 2024 via his fifth-year option - in a Cowboys uniform for the foreseeable future. Maybe, though, the negotiations for Lamb, and how to settle on a deal that figures to average over $20 million APY, is a bigger challenge than finding ways to re-up guys like Terence Steele. Jayron Kearse and Dorance Armstrong.
All in all, the so-far signings combined with the room to do what's needed should be creating a celebratory atmosphere in the Dallas front office. ... but then there is Zack Martin, unhappy with his current deal and a camp holdout - a party-pooper to the Cowboys front office that essentially responds to the "Pay the Man!'' chants by arguing, "We already Paid the Man!''
As we go through the weekend, Martin's NFL-mandated fines of $50,000 daily have totaled $550,000. At some point, "Who is right?'' matters less than finding a solution; Martin's contract was designed to make him the highest-paid guard in football, which it did - but now at $13.5 million he is 2023's seventh-highest-paid guard.
Lamb, meanwhile, is coming off of consecutive 1,100-yard receiving seasons, taking a huge leap in 2022 with 107 receptions and nine scores. And he's only 24 years old.
“I just want the best of the best as far as the best for me and make sure everything is right,'' Lamb said at camp. "Other than that, I’m just going to keep working, keep building this bond with my guys, and when the time comes in September, we’re trying to start it off right.”
The rightest "rights'' include a deal with Lamb and an appearance by Martin. ... hopefully sometime before September.
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