Mike McCarthy was at The Star on Monday when he received the news that star wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and the Dallas Cowboys reached an agreement on a new contract.
It’s a difficult time for the coaching staff as they work to trim down their roster to 53 by 4 p.m. ET Tuesday. Dallas made 15 roster cuts Monday.
But the Cowboys head coach acknowledged that for at least a little while everyone in the office was fired up about Lamb’s holdout officially coming to an end.
“I was excited,” McCarthy said, “but I think just like anything, you’re being updated frequently on where things stand. I was anticipating a sooner or later type situation today. It was good to get this done. I think we’re all relieved.”
Before answering questions during a conference call for nearly 22 minutes, McCarthy stated that this was his “favorite press conference of the year.” Lamb, who was entering the final year of his rookie contract, agreed to a four-year, $136 million deal with $100 million guaranteed. The contract makes him the NFL’s second-highest paid wide receiver behind Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson. Lamb did not attend organized team activities, mandatory minicamp or the five weeks of training camp practices in California.
“I think No. 1, it was just great to get the contract in place and obviously have him back,” McCarthy said. “The schedule that we have for the week really fits into a ramp-up mode. I don’t feel like we have to do a whole lot of adjusting, but obviously we’re going to have a plan for him. … We do have to be smart with him, and that’s our plan.”
CeeDee Lamb became the NFL’s second highest-paid receiver behind Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
McCarthy had some contact with Lamb during his holdout process. The 60-year-old coach laughed when asked if he ever slid into Lamb’s DMs.
“I’m embarrassed to tell you, I don’t even know how a DM works,” he said. “I’ve never DM’d anybody in my life. I had a great conversation with CeeDee, just really a lot of it was (saying), ‘We love you. Can’t wait till you get back. And it’s business.’ That was really the root of the conversation.”
The Cowboys have practices Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at The Star. They are then off until next Tuesday, when they begin preparing for their Week 1 opponent, the Cleveland Browns. The expectation is that Lamb will be at The Star on Tuesday. He’ll visit with the athletic trainers and they will determine if he will do anything during Tuesday’s practice.
It’s not a surprise that the deal got done this week. The numbers are similar to what Lamb likely would’ve received if something was finalized before the start of training camp. But Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wasn’t concerned with Lamb missing the camp practices, and Lamb was never going to play in any of Dallas’ preseason games.
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It’s likely that Jones’ plan all along was for Lamb to stay in top shape working on his own, avoiding any potential training camp injuries while other wide receivers got more opportunities to work with franchise QB Dak Prescott and the first-team offense. As long as Lamb avoids any type of soft tissue injury from not practicing with teammates for more than a month, the plan might work out fine in the end.
“These athletes train at an unbelievable rate and discipline,” McCarthy said. “CeeDee, in particular, he loves to run. This guy, you have to cut him down at practice because he’ll just keep going. I’m actually more focused on not doing too much with him. The overall conditioning I don’t think is going to be a concern. It’s really just more of the connection, the little things, the details. (He) just has to get back to running the routes and getting into the seven-on-sevens and the team periods. He needs body on body contested catches, have his contact balance tested. You really only get that playing football.”
Lamb is the focus of the Cowboys’ offense. He’s the No. 1 player that opposing defenses have to game plan to stop. McCarthy, who is in his second season calling Dallas’ offense, knows game planning would’ve been difficult without the All-Pro wide receiver. Now, Lamb steps back into the No. 1 spot with veteran Brandin Cooks as the No. 2 and younger wide receivers Jalen Tolbert, Jalen Brooks and KaVontae Turpin as the next three. Tight end Jake Ferguson will also continue being one of the top options in the passing game, which will likely be needed even more this season with some serious questions about the running back depth chart and two rookies expected to start on the offensive line.
“He has the whole package,” McCarthy said of Lamb. “And one thing about CeeDee is he’s as tough as they come. He’s definitely a complete player. … It will be good to have CeeDee out there and we’ll start that progress, because right now, it’s about getting him ramped up and getting him ready to go beat Cleveland.”
All of the on-field production aside, the Cowboys are expecting to get a boost just from having Lamb back in the building.
“When that big smile walks in the locker room, everybody is going to be fired up,” McCarthy said. “He brings that kind of juice, he brings that type of energy to our locker room.”
(Photo: Tim Heitman / USA Today)
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