CeeDee Lamb, Dak Prescott and Micah Parsons handing Jerry Jones an issue that Dallas Cowboys owner is struggling to answer

The Dallas Cowboys have a problem, and it’s heading towards them like a freight train.

Micah Parsons, Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb want new contracts – and those contracts are going to cost owner Jerry Jones a lot of money given they are three of the best players at their position in the NFL.

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The problem is that the Cowboys might struggle to pay all three given the timing of their contract talks, the salary cap to negotiate and the increasing unhappiness of star players.

Lamb and Parsons have been huge success stories having been drafted in the first round in back-to-back years.

Lamb was the 17th overall pick in 2020 and is entering the fifth and final year of his rookie deal with his performances underlining his desire for a contract that would put him among the highest paid players in the league.

The 25-year-old is currently ‘holding in’ as he awaits a deal after a 2023 season that saw him break Michael Irvin’s franchise record for receptions and receiving yards in a single season.

He has racked up more than 1,000 yards in each of the last three years and his total of 1,749 in the 2023 regular season trailed only Tyreek Hill (1,799).

Hill and Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson have both signed new deals this offseason – Hill’s $106.5m fully guaranteed contract over four years follows Jefferson’s $160m deal over the same period with $110m guaranteed.

Lamb justifiably feels he warrants being on a similar standing.

Things took a turn on Thursday when Cowboys owner Jones was at Cowboys camp in Oxnard and was quoted by The Atheltic’s Jon Machota as saying “I don’t have any urgency to get it done,” during media availability at training camp.

Lamb’s response was swift, quote tweeting Machota’s tweet of Jones’s quote with a post of his own that read ‘lol’.

Parsons is awaiting a new deal as he enters his fourth year in the league.

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Like Lamb, Parsons is looking for a deal that would reset the market for defensive players and his performances since being selecting with the 12th overall pick in 2021 would appear to suggest he is worthy of the becoming the highest paid defensive player in the league.

The 25-year-old Penn State product has more than 13 sacks in each of his three seasons, and his versatility across the defense under former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn made the Cowboys ‘D’ one of the most feared in the league.

It would be no surprise to be something similar to Lamb unfolding in the summer of 2025 when he would be entering the fifth year of his rookie deal. 

Quarterback Prescott is perhaps the most pressing, because when you have a quarterback you pay him and the four-year $160m deal he signed in 2021 is up at the end of the 2025 season.

The 31-year-old has been told he could reset the market for quarterbacks, much like Kirk Cousins when he hit free agency in 2018 – at the time the first fully guaranteed contract in NFL history.

Cousins signed a three-year $84m deal, and Prescott has been told if he sits tight, plays out the final year and hits the market in 2025 he could cash in to the tune of around $60-$70m a season.

Back in May OTAs, Prescott said: “I don’t play for money. Never have never cared for it, to be honest with you.

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“Would give it up just to play this game. So, I allow that to the business people to say what it’s worth, what they’re supposed to give a quarterback of my play, a person of my play, a leader of my play.

“For me, it’s about, as I said, control what I can control and handle that part and the rest will take care of itself.”

Underpinning all this is the future of head coach Mike McCarthy, entering his fifth season as Cowboys and yet to take them beyond the Divisional Round of the playoffs.

After starting with a 6-10 season, three straight 12-5 seasons have taken the Cowboys into the postseason but the last two offseasons have seen his future the subject of much speculation.

He has stayed on – unsurprisingly there is a contract twist here too.

McCarthy’s five-year deal is up in 2025 and the name of Bill Belichick has hovered over the Cowboys with Jones a confirmed admirer of the legendary New England Patriots coach.

With McCarthy’s contract up too, it’s no surprise that Prescott wants to hold on before committing himself to Dallas.

The Cowboys kick off the season in Cleveland in Week 1 – it’s never dull in Dallas and that is likely to be the case once again, with even more drama than usual off the field