The New England Patriots might be exploring a trade for Dallas Cowboys‘ star receiver CeeDee Lamb, who is unhappy with his current situation.
The Cowboys and Lamb have been in a tense negotiation on an extension. Lamb has missed all of training camp and a pair of preseason games as part of his holdout. The 2020 first-round pick is eyeing a deal that will put him on par with other top receivers around the league.
The high mark is currently held by Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson, who is hauling in $35 million per season as the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL. Lamb would like to get around that number and recently turned down a deal approaching $33 million per season from Dallas, per Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News.
The Patriots were in the mix in trade talks for San Francisco 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk earlier this offseason. According to reports, the team was willing to pay him around $30 million per season if they landed him via trade. Lamb is a much more proven commodity and is entering his prime at 25.
Patriots first-year head coach Jerod Mayo was asked about the a potential trade for Lamb during an appearance on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” on Monday, August 19.
“You can’t talk about players on other teams, but you can put a call in,” Mayo said.
Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf recently said the team would continue monitoring the wide receiver market.
“We make calls on all positions and on all players that we think might be able to help us,” Wolf said, per NESN. “Sometimes, it’s just to try to gather information from other clubs and kind of see what they’re thinking about their own roster.”
Cowboys Have Shut Down CeeDee Lamb Trade Rumors
The Cowboys resorting to trading Lamb is unlikely. During a recent conversation with “The Doomsday Pod,” Cowboys Chief Operating Officer Stephen Jones said that the team has “zero” intention of trading Lamb.
“CeeDee can’t go play anywhere. He’s under contract, and we have franchise tags available,” Stephen Jones said. “CeeDee isn’t going to be playing anywhere but Dallas. We want this to be a good situation for him when we’re all said and done. But also a good situation so that we can put a good football team on the field.”
Lamb finished last season with a league-high 135 receptions for 1,749 yards and 12 touchdowns. He helped power the Cowboys’ dynamic offense and was Prescott’s favorite target.
“We think the world of CeeDee and we understand where he’s coming from on this, and why he’s not here. But we continue to work very hard on getting this deal done,” Stephen Jones said.
Cowboys Need to Lock Up Key Players Like Lamb
Jones has called the situation challenging, citing that the Cowboys are also eyeing extensions for quarterback Dak Prescott and linebacker Micah Parsons. All three could potentially set new standards for pay at their positions.
Most teams would be ecstatic to have three core players who have earned record-setting extensions like Lamb, Prescott, and Parsons. But the Cowboys are taking their time to ensure everything is up for the team’s future.
“We’ve got a challenging situation. It’s a good situation to have, but it’s challenging when you have one of the top quarterbacks in the league and two of the best non-quarterback players in the league in Micah Parsons and CeeDee Lamb,” Jones said. “It’s a negotiation that we’re having to work hard at. At the end of the day, you want to put some other players [on the field]. Those three guys can’t go out and play the game by themselves. We’ll continue to work at it.”
The Cowboys open the regular season on September 8 against the Cleveland Browns.
