Report: CeeDee Lamb not expected to attend voluntary offseason program amid contract negotiations

CeeDee Lamb is predictably not attending voluntary offseason work amid his contract negotiations with the Cowboys.

To be clear there is no need at all to panic. But we are in some “not Ideal” waters. On Monday, the Dallas Cowboys began their voluntary offseason program and shortly after the whistle blew it was reported that CeeDee Lamb is not in attendance.

Part of the reason that panic should be avoided is that we basically knew this was coming. Reports from a week ago suggested so. But the meat of our “Do Not Panic” mantra is that this is voluntary work. Obviously it would be preferred for Lamb to be in attendance and involved, but we are nowhere near any serious level of football activity happening. Plus Lamb has no incentive to participate.

You will recall that he is coming off of the most individually successful season that any wide receiver has ever had in franchise history. At the moment he is slated to enter the 2024 season on the final year of his rookie contract (his fifth-year option season). He has all of the reason in the world to wait this thing out and force the Cowboys’ hand.

Lamb first became eligible for an extension last year and obviously nothing was agreed to. The Cowboys have a proven tendency for waiting until the last minute for things like this, unlike their division rivals. We spoke over the weekend about how the Philadelphia Eagles could muddy the waters by paying DeVonta Smith and shortly before this Lamb news broke out, and that happened.

By paying Smith now the Eagles benefit from beating the ballooning of the market. Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase, Jaylen Waddle, Brandon Aiyuk, Amon-Ra St. Brown and obviously Lamb are all expected to get paid in the near-ish future, and when they do, the market of the present will be something we hardly recognize.

Elite front offices recognize this principle and do what they can to get ahead of it. If you do not then you wind up at a voluntary workout with one of your best players not showing up.

Update: 12:50pm ET

Micah Parsons was also absent on Monday.

Also hardly worth panicking over.