Signing(s): CeeDee Lamb extends with Cowboys (4 yrs, $136M - $38M SB)

[Troy McClure]

The NFL cap isn’t like the NHL.

Dak will sign and become the highest paid QB in the league, just like the last big-named QB who signed. Within a year, Dak will be the 5th highest paid QB in the league. Within a couple, not even top 10.

And the cap will rise, the cap hit will be manipulated and pushed towards the infinite void, and the Cowboys will continue to not spend money they could have because that’s just what they do.

They already saved money by signing Lamb, and will save even more by signing Dak. And the cap will rollover to next season and they’ll sign Micah a week before the regular season starts.

But the Cowboys continually get the timing of these wrong. They keep signing guys a year later than they should, which means they are locking guys in 10+% higher than they needed to.

We saw that with Dak where they could have locked him up during this same contract window at $25-30 million per season, but Jerry waited a year and instead paid $40M a season.

They could extend Parsons today where they'd be paying him in comparison to contracts signed this spring, but instead, they're going to wait until next summer when they cap will have gone up another 10% and his contract will go up as well with the new round of extensions.

 

[Dr Salt]

No way they have anything left over for Dak or Micah

One of those is gonna have to walk

How Jerry runs things. By the way given the Cowboys very dormant offseason this was their biggest move

They will have room for Dak and Micah. There are other sacrifices to make. Looking at Demarcus Lawrence and Osa after this year Daron Bland after 2025, and Zack Martin probably retiring as the sacrifices. Then there are cuttable guys like Steele and Cooks. The Cowboys core should remain but yes expect the bulk of the low tier pro-bowlers or quality starters to not be on the team by 2026.

 

[Dr Salt]

The Cowboys wait and drag these out too long. I know the liquid money Jerry needs to get all 3 in the same offseason is immense but it is kind of insane to let the price go up.

 

[StreetHawk]

Yup. Feels kinda weird to even have a cap when you can do this, but whatever lol.

Contracts are not fully guaranteed. Only a portion of it. Gives teams the opportunity to manipulate the cap when they run into a bad decision contract. Be it Wentz, Ryan, Zeke, or whomever that didn't work out. Move off the player but offset the dead cap charge by re-adjusting other player's deal to convert base salary into a bonus to push some charges into the future. Player doesn't care as they still get their money, just a different declaration of it for cap purposes.