Some would say the Cowboys want to win. Others would say the Cowboys just want people to talk about the Cowboys.
In recent months, more and more evidence has emerged to suggest that, as to owner Jerry Jones, the latter is more important than the former.
With a fairly narrow gap, all things considered, between the Cowboys and receiver CeeDee Lamb, it should be easy to get this done. On Wednesday, Clarence E. Hill, Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that the Cowboys have offered $33 million per year and that Lamb wants $35 million per year. Also on Wednesday, Jones had more to say about the situation — possibly so that media and fans would have more to say, too.
“We’re conscientiously working to get something done,” Jones said after Wednesday’s joint practice with the Rams, via Lindsey Thiry of ESPN.com.
Last week, Jones said he feels no urgency to get a deal done. Because Lamb didn’t react well to that (“lol” on X was his response), Jones tried on Sunday to explain himself. The message was still the same — no urgency.
On Wednesday, Jones said he doesn’t “want to be misconstrued” regarding Lamb.
“We obviously do this because of how bad we want to be together,” Jones said. “I know he wants to be a Dallas Cowboy and we want him to be a Dallas Cowboy, so I don’t flare too much when we see something that might be taken the wrong way, I really don’t.”
Jones also doesn’t flare too much when he sees something the wrong way because, deep down, he doesn’t care what anyone is saying about him or his team, as long as they’re saying something. That’s always been his vibe. His Sunday Ticket trial testimony confirmed it.
In most cases, NFL negotiations are driven by deadlines. In this case, Jones and the Cowboys have decided that the deadline resides at some point before Week 1, perhaps just before the practice week commences in earnest before the visit to Cleveland, to move to their bottom line and to in turn get this done.
Some would say the deadline should have been the start of training camp. That Jones and the Cowboys should have had Lamb in the fold, getting himself ready to build on last year. Instead, he won’t be as prepared as he would or could have been.
And if he doesn’t play as well this year as he did last year, the holdout will be blamed. If he gets injured, the holdout will be blamed. If the Cowboys’ offense doesn’t operate the way it needs to, the holdout will be blamed.
That all could have been avoided. But Jones made a calculation. He decided to wait to do what would have been done before camp opened, and as a result his team will dominate the headlines during the preseason — especially as Jones periodically throws another log on the fire and/or squirts more lighter fluid onto the flames.
