CeeDee Lamb's impatient summer: How the star WR got his massive extension from the Dallas Cowboys

FRISCO — When it came to the challenge on the horizon, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott gave CeeDee Lamb, his favorite target, some pretty simple advice.

“Stay strong,” Lamb recalled Prescott telling him, “and be prepared.”

Lamb took those words to heart as a star wide receiver does during the off-season. He trained vigorously in south Florida, where the workload was heavy and the weather was, to use Lamb’s words, not pleasant outside. The work, Lamb believes, paid off. He said he feels healthy. He confirmed he put on some weight, or some extra body armor, as he called it.

Staying strong, physically, wasn’t an issue. But mentally? That wasn’t as easy for Lamb in his first contract negoitation.

Before Monday, and before he signed a four-year, $136 million extension, the last time Lamb stepped foot in the Cowboys’ facility was back in January, after the Cowboys suffered an early and dramatic exit to the postseason. He said there were moments this off-season where he would drive by The Star, only to remind himself that he couldn’t go in. Business, and a drawn-out contract negotiation, came first for the reigning first-team All-Pro.

“I’d look at it, tempted to come in, obviously,” Lamb said of driving past the facility, “but then I’d go grab some food right across the street.”

There may as well been a dividing line between what his heart wanted and what his mind knew he had to do. In order to get paid like a young, star receiver should, he had to stay away. But that line blurred many times this off-season.

Lamb tried his best to be with the Cowboys without actually breaking his holdout. He said he would watch film on his iPad probably more that the majority of his teammates. He would text his teammates and ask everything that someone with a serious case of FOMO — fear of missing out — might.

“I can’t put a number on it,” Lamb said of his texts to teammates. “I’m not even going to lie to you, I just had like all the questions, How we feeling? Like, ‘What are we thinking?’ Like, ‘What’s the situation? Y’all know when I get back I’m coming with energy so obviously not with my mouth but with my play.”

He would even text fellow wide receiver Jalen Tolbert encouraging words.

“Good morning, bro,” Tolbert recalled Lamb texting him. “Have a great day.”

Though he was away, Lamb’s teammates and coaches never doubted that he would come back and hit the ground running. Sure, Lamb even admitted that the little details — contact balance, timing, etc. — can only come with time. He believes there’s enough time play a full game against the Cleveland Browns in Week 1. Lamb, true to Prescott’s words, stayed strong and prepared.

Looking back, now, it wasn’t easy for him to stay away in the hopes of landing a new extension.

“Obviously you got to separate your business likes from your actually, something you grew up playing for fun,” Lamb said. “As for me, I was trying to send subliminal messages, like my love for the game has never vanished. The business side of it, is its own side. But then when I’m lining up, or get on this field, I’m ready to work. it was just like i saw both sides of it. It was very eye opening. I understand how it is now. Granted it’s my first time going through it, for my first veteran contract. I’m prepared for the next one.”

Lamb said there was one moment where he almost threw business to the side and caved. It was near the end of the holdout. He stayed strong and eventually he was rewarded for it — though it took one last moment of stress before he could get there.

Lamb said that he received a FaceTime call from his agent, Tory Dandy, the other day. Dandy had to break him the news. The negotiations were, as Dandy described to Lamb, going south. Lamb was already impatient with the process. A development like that could’ve been enough to make him cave.

Dandy then pulled the rug.

“They only want to pay you $34 million [a year],” Lamb recalled Dandy saying.

Lamb’s response: “Where do I sign?”

“It was amazing, bro,” Lamb said. “All the stress, everything just went out the window.”

Lamb signed his deal officially on Tuesday. Hours later, he was back on the practice field at the Cowboys’ indoor facility. After stretching, he was the first person to line up for a vertical route from Prescott. His quarterback took the football, gave him a signal, and dropped a deep pass right into his hands.

It was a lot different than the work Lamb had been doing on his own previously. Instead of the south Florida heat outdoors, he was back inside catching passes from his teammates.

“Coming back indoors, I can breath a little bit more,” Lamb said.

It was a refreshing change: from both a literal and mental sense.