JERRY, THE BOYS, & THE BUDGET $$$

 

Longtime Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones has been a pillar to both Forth Worth and Dallas, Texas over the past 35 years now.  Jerry is a widely known figure to everyone, sports fan or not, most people have heard the name Jerry Jones before.  He is one of the most ingenious businessmen the NFL or America has ever seen.  When people see Jerry as an Owner get what we believe to be a little too involved with the team’s day-to-day operations or with coaching and player personnel, it kind of starts to get a tad cringeworthy.  He is an incredible Owner and should most definitely be abreast of everything that is going on, but at the same time, it probably wouldn’t hurt if he took a slightly different approach at times.  Currently, the Cowboys have been in the news everywhere you look because of Jerry saying this or Jerry saying that with the current contract disputes between said Owner and their number one WR CeeDee Lamb.

Cedarian DeLeon “CeeDee” Lamb is known for his incredible play abilities as one of the most elite WRs in the entire league.  He is the most unwavering option on their offense on a week-to-week basis since basically his first season as a Cowboy.  Sure, when he was drafted 17^th overall in 2020, he joined the then number one WR Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup but Lamb played right out of the gates.  Gallup had missed 12 games due to different injuries in his career which unequivocally gave him more opportunities and shined even more light on CeeDee but we all assumed he would be a stud in the NFL from his level of production at Oklahoma.  His sophomore season is when he really started to up his game catching 65 passes for 1,158 yds 11 TDs.  CeeDee’s junior year his number of receptions dropped to 62 although bested his yardage and TD totals, accumulating 1,327 yards and hauling in 14 touchdowns.  He was a superstar in college and has since held up to the same stature for the Dallas Cowboys.  CeeDee currently has the 4^th most receiving yards to start an NFL career along with also setting some other records.  In 2023 Lamb became the first player in NFL history to record at least 10 catches for more than 150 yards in three consecutive games plus he broke Michael Irvin’s Cowboys single-season record for both receptions and yards also breaking Irvin’s single-game record bringing in 13 catches for 227 receiving yards.

Along with CeeDee Lamb holding out for a new deal, there have been a couple of other cornerstones of this team that are looking for new contracts.  One is QB Dak Prescott who is currently in the last year of his deal.  His contract holds a cap hit of just over $55.1M and his average salary is $40M (15^th among QBs).  Dak is a very good top-10 type of talent at the QB position and seeks to be compensated as such.  The market for every position will always only go up and for this position it is, was, and will always be the highest-paid group of players leaguewide.  This is a tricky situation however, he is very talented, wins tons of games in the regular season, and is consistently one of the better QBs (when healthy) in terms of passing yards, win percentage, and TD-Int ratio.  The only negatives here with Dak that could maybe make the details of his new contract a bit murky would be the fact that he does seem to make some poor and costly decisions at times.  Otherwise, the biggest talk about Dak has always been the lack of play in the post-season as Prescott has now played in 7 playoff games, but unfortunately only won 28.5% of those games (record of 2-5).  Coincidentally, the 28.5%-win percentage ranks 15^th in the league among the top 19 QBs of APY salary.  I’m not saying that Dak should continue to be paid as the 15th-highest salary among QBs, but that is an interesting little nugget of info.

Upon writing this article CeeDee Lamb and the Dallas Cowboys have reached an agreement for terms on a new deal.  Lamb’s new contract is a highly lucrative one as we all expected it would be.  Dallas offered their top playmaker a record 4- year deal for $136M.  Ceedee has since signed said new contract and in doing so becomes the 2^nd highest-paid non-QB in NFL history.  The new deal includes $38M in signing bonus money, which is the largest amount ever given to a WR!  Though the entire fully guaranteed money hasn’t yet been announced publicly as I am writing this, there are whispers that Lamb may wind up with $100M or somewhere in that ballpark in guarantees.

There is also another player who is patiently waiting to hear about the terms of a new contract.  That player is the key piece to their whole defense, I am of course referring to Micah Parsons.  Parsons is one of the most versatile players I’ve ever seen from rushing the passer to excelling in the run game and even having a strong presence in the pass game when he drops back into coverage.  His physicality & presence brings more to the defense than what his stats show.  Micah’s numbers have descended each year of his career so far in tackles (84 tot, 64 solo 2021, 65 tot, 42 solo 2022, 64 tot, 36 solo 2023), but his sacks have been trending upwards.  He had 13 sacks in his rookie season, then he had 13.5 in year two, and he managed to bring down QBs 14 times last season.  Micah isn’t stressing over a new contract though; he knows that it's only a matter of time before he’s called into the office to sign his initials.

Lastly, I have one more note on the state of the Cowboys franchise right now and that is that HC Mike McCarthy is also currently coaching on the last year of his deal.  I don’t know for sure if Mike wants to stay there or not, I'd probably guess so, but with Jerry seemingly always in your space who could really know what the man wants other than him.  Coach McCarthy is presently third in the NFL right in total wins with 178 and is tied for ninth in overall win percentage.  Mike’s overall regular season win-loss record is 167-102-2 and his playoff record is 11-11.  That playoff record is the only thing coach McCarthy needs to work on because he kills it every year in the regular season.  After last season that makes three consecutive years of finishing with a record of 12-5.  The Dallas Cowboys now find themselves tied with the San Francisco forty-niners for the all-time lead of the most seasons with 12 or more wins (16).