Stephen Jones details Cowboys' pitch to Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb: 'It's a lower cost of living'

The Dallas Cowboys are working on contract extensions for several of their stars, but the two that have come to focus as training camp has gotten underway are quarterback Dak Prescott and receiver CeeDee Lamb.

Both are commanding top dollar and to this point, Dallas has been unable to lock them up for the foreseeable future. Lamb is notably staging a hold-in at training camp and will not practice unless he gets a long-term extension.

Stephen Jones, Cowboys vice president and CEO, made an appearance Monday on 96.7 The Ticket in Dallas-Fort Worth, and said that while he respects that Prescott and Lamb want to be paid, Dallas wants to make sure it can field a competitive team around them in the long haul. Jones also cited how the state of Texas doesn’t have state income taxes, an advantage when it comes to signing players.

Stephen Jones gives update on Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb contract negotiations

“[The top of the QB market with Joe Burrow at $55 million per season] has stopped,” Jones said, via Jon Machota of The Athletic. “Obviously a guy like [Patrick] Mahomes, all he has to do is raise his hand. I think Mahomes also is liking winning those championships. And he knows he can [only] take so much before what can he have [around him]. [Travis] Kelce did the same thing. He could’ve probably walked away with quite a bit more money in terms of what they got in the tight end market. I think all of those things have to come into play.

“One of the great things about Texas is, you don’t have state income taxes. Companies like to move here because it’s a lower cost of living than it is in some of these other big cities. Those are all things that we’re trying to sell our players on so we can put other guys around Dak, CeeDee, Micah [Parsons], [Trevon] Diggs, [Terence] Steele. At some point, we want to keep being able to put some guys around them.

“At the same time, I totally understand that they want to be paid and it’s their time to be paid. And we respect that as well. Certainly, they deserve it. They do their job as well as anyone in the league, whether you’re talking about CeeDee, Dak, Micah, Diggs. All those guys play at a high level, and they deserve to be paid.”

Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb next in line to get paid?

Prescott is coming off a season in which he finished as the runner-up in MVP voting. He is set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2025 unless something gets done with Dallas. Prescott counts $55.445 million against the Cowboys’ salary cap this season.

Lamb, meanwhile, is set to make $17.99 million this season on his fifth-year option. In 2023, he hauled in a league-leading 135 receptions to go along with a career-high 1,749 yards and 12 touchdowns. Other top wideouts across the league such as the Minnesota Vikings’ Justin Jefferson and the Detroit Lions’ Amon-Ra St. Brown have gotten paid this offseason. It’s clear Lamb wants next.

When it comes to quarterbacks, several big-money contracts have been handed out this offseason. Most notably, the Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa and the Green Bay Packers’ Jordan Love have gotten paid. Prescott, however, is still waiting.

Prescott is now faced with a potential new reality of playing for another team one day.

“I want to be here. But when you look up — all the great quarterbacks I watched played for other teams,” Prescott said last week. “So, my point in saying that is that that’s not something to fear. That may be a reality for me one day. It may not be my decision. So, that’s the freedom I have.”