The regular season is three weeks away and the Dallas Cowboys and CeeDee Lamb remain embroiled in contract negotiations. This game of cat and mouse has a predictable outcome. The Cowboys are obviously going to sign Lamb. The two sides just need to find a middle ground.
It seems they are still a good ways apart in talks, however.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reported over the weekend that Dallas offered Lamb $33 million per year. Not only is the salary too low for Lamb, who declined the offer, but the cash flow, guarantees and structure of the deal in its early years also don't meet his demands.
Until the Cowboys make Lamb an offer he is more than comfortable playing the villain. Or at least, that's what we think Lamb meant by his cryptic Instagram story on Monday (h/t R.J. Ochoa of Blogging The Boys).
Cowboys fans are freaking out over CeeDee Lamb's cryptic post
An optimist will interpret this as Lamb "suiting up," hinting that a deal has been reached or close to it. A pessimist, however, will see it as Lamb embracing the villain role. A carefree individual might presume that Lamb is merely watching Spider-Man 3. If so, his taste in movies should be brought into question, but that is neither here nor there.
Sometimes, the hero has to play the role of the villain. It's a familiar theme in the superhero world and it certainly applies to Lamb right now. Or does it? The last time we checked, everyone's vitriol amid Lamb's holdout has been directed at the front office for letting it reach this point.
Lamb isn't wrong for wanting a deal that reflects the top of the market. He may be over the top in wanting more than Justin Jefferson's $35 million AAV, if that is what's complicating talks. A $2 million difference (among other particulars) at the negotiation table makes all the difference, especially for a player who just had the most prolific season in franchise history for a wide receiver.
Lamb's cryptic post is just the latest embarrassing footnote of this contract saga. It seems like ages ago that Lamb called out Jerry Jones on social media after Jones said he didn't have urgency to get the star WR's deal done.
Hopefully this is the last of the twist and turns before Lamb signs. Given the rate at which drama finds the Cowboys, we wouldn't bet on it.
