Ian Rapoport talks Cowboys contract holdups, organizational pressure
What's been the biggest holdup in the contract negotiations with CeeDee Lamb & Dak Prescott? How close are they to being worked through? NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport joined Shan & RJ to talk about that and more, including where Mike McCarthy stands going into the final year of his contract and why this organization craves pressure.
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00:00Which do you think is a better characterization just from your understanding of how the DAC
00:20negotiations have gone? Which is a better characterization of his negotiations right
00:24now that the Cowboys are trying to figure out how to make the money work or that they
00:28have a disagreement with what DAC is worth? I don't really view it like what quarterbacks
00:37are worth because that doesn't really exist anymore. It's crazy the way the quarterback
00:41market has gone. Like nobody says anymore, you know, well, is Trevor Lawrence really
00:48worth 55? It's like based on what he's done on the field, maybe not. That's where the
00:52market is. If Jordan Love played seven great games, is he worth 55 also? It's like, well,
01:00that's what he's going to get. So to me, it's really a question of leverage rather than
01:07worth because DAC's leverage is he could just not do a deal. He could just say, hey guys,
01:13I'm good. Like I'm going to go into the season. I'm going to play it out. And assuming he
01:18plays as he's played basically every season for the last like 10 years or whatever it
01:23is. Um, last year he was playing at an MVP level. Like, you know, he'll get over 60 by
01:29a bunch in free agency. He'll be the biggest free agent we've ever seen. So that's his
01:33leverage. I view it more like that rather than overall talent and like what he's actually
01:39worth. It's really just like how much is DAC going to use his leverage and how much of
01:44the Cowboys going to sort of bow to that.
01:45So what do you think are the current holdups right now in the two deals?
01:52Um, I would say let's start with CD. Um, I think, I don't think there's a disagreement
01:59on how much he's worth. I think there's a, you know, essential understanding of he has
02:04an excellent receiver and probably will get paid as the second highest receiver in the
02:09NFL. I think they're okay there. Now there's a lot of other parts of the deal. There's
02:12the guaranteed money, which is incredibly important. There's the length of the deal,
02:16um, which I don't, you know, I think they're, you know, sort of okay there, whatever it
02:21ends up being. Um, but I think the other issue is, you know, you have Brandon IU, who's a
02:27very good receiver laying out there. If Brandon IU gets $32 million, let's say from the 49ers,
02:33which I don't think he's going to get, but let's just say, then that probably changes
02:37what CD is going to ask for. So I think the holdup on CD, if that's what you want to call
02:42it, is that the landscape is not fully formed yet. Like, cause you know, if, if the 49ers
02:49guard, forget it, we're just going to trade him. And Brandon, you could something unforeseen
02:54and CD already took a deal. Like that's not good for him. So I think the interrelating
02:59receiver deals probably affect everything. As far as that goes, I just think they haven't
03:03gotten there yet. You know, like they'd made some proposals. It sounds like they're a good
03:08faith and not, you know, not offensive, like not embarrassing. Like no one's insulted.
03:16They just, they just haven't gotten there yet.