At long last, the Dallas Cowboys don’t have to worry about their superstar wide receiver. CeeDee Lamb signed a four-year, $136 million ($100 million guaranteed) extension with the club on Tuesday, making him the second-highest-paid non-quarterback of all time.
However, Lamb got trolled by his agent Tory Dandy after the contract got finalized, via NFL Network’s Jane Slater.
“I was actually in Florida, just chopping it up with my guys,” Lamb said. “Then I ended up just getting a random phone call, obviously from my agent, and I was expecting that. But at that moment, he cracked a little joke, he took it the opposite direction, and I was a bit upset. He was like ‘Everything went south.’ I was like ‘What do you mean?’ And he was like ‘yeah, they’re only trying to give you $34 [million] a year, and I’m like ‘okay…appreciate it.'”
The $34 million, of course, was the average annual salary that Lamb and Dandy had been targeting during his entire holdout. Now, the All-Pro wideout can focus on preparing for the Cleveland Browns in Week 1.
“It’s amazing, a great home welcoming,” Lamb said of his return to practice. “It was worth the wait, and I’m happy to be back out here with my guys, get this timing down, ready to hit Cleveland. It was a very fulfilling moment, blessed is an understatement. I’m ready to go ball now.”
While Lamb and company got what they wanted in the end, the road to get there wasn’t easy.
CeeDee Lamb had to stand his ground with the Cowboys
Lamb admitted that he thought about caving and settling for the $18 million salary in the last year of his rookie deal. However, Dandy kept him focused on the mission.
“Absolutely, but then that’s when my agent came in,” Lamb said. “That’s why he’s the best at what he does. Shoutout Tory for doing that, keeping me mentally locked in, he’d check on me maybe three times a week. Just seeing how I’m doing mentally, physically, how I’m holding up.”
Lamb held out for several months and worked out privately in Florida, away from the team. The 25-year-old took fines for not showing up to camp and also dealt with the emotional weight of being away from his teammates.
While Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones was stubborn throughout the process, he had a positive conversation with Lamb on Tuesday, via The Athletic’s Jon Machota.
“You’re gonna be dealing with huge amounts of money. Be careful. Be careful. Look under the hood,” Jones told Lamb. “Give it a lot of consideration as you make decisions regarding what you have as far as keeping it. You don’t have to be smart to make money. You can be very talented. You can be very driven. You do not have to be smart to make money. But you have to be real smart to keep it. Very smart. Any way that I can help a player in any way keep it, put me in coach.”
