Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones recently created a bit of a mess by saying that he has “no urgency” to get a contract in place with receiver CeeDee Lamb, who is holding out of training camp.
Before Sunday’s preseason opener against the Rams, Jones tried to perform a cleanup on Aisle CeeDee.
Jones made his comments during the team’s in-house Countdown to Kickoff show from SoFi Stadium, where the Cowboys will be facing the Rams.
“I think I got in trouble about it the other day when I said, ‘Look, we’re not urgent about CeeDee,’” Jones said. “Well, no one appreciates CeeDee being on the field any more than I do.
“But let me say this, he wouldn’t be taking a snap out here today if he’d been here. You’ve got to use your head when you expose key players. . . . We know exactly what CeeDee can do. He worked out with Dak. And so we wouldn’t have him out here. It has really not anything to do with his contract. Dak won’t be out here this afternoon.
“And so the bottom line is, what it is is, no, there’s not that urgency. Now, I understand completely the angst that’s happening when you’re anxious about and someone says anything about whether you’re missed or not. Well, CeeDee, you’re missed, OK? But you’re not missed out here competing, and it doesn’t put any pressure, anyplace on us. It’s not pressure out here today and in practice.”
So CeeDee is missed, but he isn’t? Got it.
Jerry’s point hasn’t changed, and he basically repeated himself from the other day, but with different words. He feels no urgency to get CeeDee in the fold because he doesn’t feel as if CeeDee currently needs to be in the fold.
In other words, no urgency.
It’s still a flawed position. Even if CeeDee wouldn’t be playing in the preseason opener, there’s value in participating in training camp. Otherwise, why do it? Reps help. Being in meetings help. Being around the team helps.
When running back Ezekiel Elliott held out five years ago, he wasn’t the same player when he came back. No amount of working out on your own properly simulates camp.
Besides, what’s the point? They’re going to get a deal done eventually. Why not just get it down now? Why wait until there is urgency?
It’s more evidence to bolster my belief that, when it comes to negotiating long-term deals with their best young players, the Cowboys are: (1) cheap; (2) short-sighted; and (3) not as smart as they think they are.
It also makes me more convinced that Jerry cares far more about money and notoriety for his team than adding another Lombardi Trophy to a case that has accumulated nearly 30 years of dust.