CeeDee Lamb downplays contract concerns entering 2023 season

The Dallas Cowboys picked up the fifth-year option on receiver CeeDee Lamb‘s contact this spring, keeping him with the club through the 2024 season. But both sides are hoping a longer-term contract agreement materializes in the near future.

Lamb has been a stud for Dallas, only getting better as he goes. He finished sixth in the NFL in receiving in 2022.

The former Oklahoma star opened up on the state of his contract negotiations with Dallas, with The Athletic’s Jon Machota relaying what he said.

“I’m going to be 100 percent honest, I’m not even distracted,” Lamb said. “The money, definitely worried about it. But it’s not nothing that’s really on my mind every day that I wake up or when I come to the building.”

As a former first-round NFL Draft pick by the Cowboys in 2020, Lamb has already made a considerable amount of money.

He signed a four-year, $14 million contract originally. With his fifth-year extension, Lamb is set to make $18 million in 2024, so long as the Cowboys don’t get a longer-term deal in place before then.

But even with CeeDee Lamb’s contract negotiations ongoing, the star wideout is trying to keep his focus primarily on football.

“I don’t really think about how much money am I gonna make,” he said. “It’s really just all about coming in and showing my worth, and then let everything else handle itself.”

He’s done a pretty good job of that so far.

Lamb’s production has increased considerably in virtually every category in his three years in the league. In 2020 he had 74 catches for 935 yards and five touchdowns. The following year he had 79 catches for 1,102 yards and six touchdowns. And in a monster year in 2022, Lamb had 107 catches for 1,359 yards and nine touchdowns.

That’s production the Cowboys will likely be unwilling to part with, increasing the importance of getting a long-term contract with CeeDee Lamb hammered out soon.

Lamb starred at Oklahoma in college, where he was named a consensus All-American in 2019, as well as a first-team All-Big 12 selection. Prior to that, Lamb was a second-team All-Big 12 selection in 2018.