Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb led the NFL in receptions in 2023 with 135. He was 50 yards and one touchdown shy of leading the league in receiving yards and touchdowns, too. The big year was great timing for Lamb, who was entering the final year of his rookie deal in 2024 and due a monster contract extension.
Instead, Lamb’s contract situation set the table for a step back in 2024.
As negotiations dragged, Lamb missed Dallas’ offseason program and training camp. His holdout ended with a lucrative extension less than two weeks before the Cowboys’ season opener.
Before the Cowboys’ Sunday night tilt against the San Francisco 49ers in late October, Lamb was asked if missing training camp played a role in the chemistry being off between him and quarterback Dak Prescott.
“Absolutely,” Lamb said. “I’m going to be truthful. I will say it’s not going to be just a pickup from what we were at the end of the season (in 2023). But with everything, the work we’ve had built up, we’ll be fine.”
Lamb finished the season with respectable numbers — 101 catches for 1,194 yards and six touchdowns — but they were down across the board from his prior two seasons. Losing Prescott midseason didn’t help, but Lamb had his struggles with Prescott on the field, too. His 11 drops, according to TruMedia, led the NFL last year and set a new career high.
The impact of holdouts is far from an exact science. While Lamb was missing practice reps last offseason, so too was Ja’Marr Chase. The Cincinnati Bengals’ wide receiver staged a hold-in, reporting to camp but not participating in practice. Eventually, with the season on the cusp, Chase began practicing with the team ahead of its opener. He went on to win the 2024 triple crown, leading the NFL in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns.
The Bengals gave Chase a contract extension early this offseason, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time of his signing.
Ja’Marr Chase had a career year in 2024 despite his contract dispute during training camp. (Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)
Historically, the performance of players coming off a holdout has varied. Going back to 1993, Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith missed all of training camp and the first two games of the season amid a contract dispute. That season, Smith won league MVP honors and helped Dallas to a Super Bowl victory, in which he also won Super Bowl MVP. Cornerback Darrelle Revis held out in 2010 with the New York Jets and followed it up by winning first-team All-Pro honors. Guard Zack Martin had a similar result two years ago with the Cowboys.
On the flip side, Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott held out for a new deal in 2019. He got off to a slow start that season and never fully rekindled the magic of his first three seasons in the NFL. After two Pro Bowl seasons in three years, Melvin Gordon’s holdout for the Los Angeles Chargers in 2019 stretched into the season and led to his worst season since his rookie year. Although 49ers pass rusher Nick Bosa turned in a stellar year in 2023 after his camp holdout, he did say midway through that season that missing camp impacted his ability to reach his full potential.
“I think a little bit,” Bosa said when asked if his holdout had negatively impacted him. “I think I’m trying to work on stuff on the run this year that I wasn’t able to do in camp. So, those games that I mentioned, the two, I think I was thinking too much because I was trying to add something to my rush plan, which is not what I want to be doing during the season. I want to be locked in on what I do best and just doing it throughout the whole year. But there’s no excuse at this point for that.”
As the 2025 regular season inches closer, this offseason’s holdouts/hold-ins will be under a brighter spotlight. The Bengals are listening to trades for star pass rusher Trey Hendrickson. Washington Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin has been medically cleared and is going through a ramp-up period. Nothing seems to have changed in Dallas, with the Cowboys holding firm on their position that a handshake agreement was reached in March and that, regardless, Micah Parsons is under contract. Parsons continues to show up to practice but is not participating.
Though performance is one aspect to examine when measuring the impact of a holdout, the health factor is important, too. Earl Thomas famously gave the Seattle Seahawks’ sideline the middle finger when he broke his leg in Week 4 of 2018 after holding out of training camp the month prior. Although Thomas’ injury wasn’t a soft tissue injury, last year, 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk tore his ACL and MCL in Week 7 after a lengthy hold-in for a new deal.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to do change of direction,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said when asked if soft tissue injuries were a concern for when Parsons returns. “You have to do things. It’s not just getting on a treadmill. We don’t do that. There has to be change of direction and things like that. Certainly, injuries are a part of the game. I have complete faith in our strength staff, our trainers and all of that stuff that they’re doing the things that they need to do for him to go out and perform well.”
There are examples littered throughout history of a contract holdout costing a team in production or costing a player in health. Likewise, there are examples where a player holds out and produces at a high clip and gets through the season in good health.
Trying to forecast how the 2025 season will go for Parsons, McLaurin or Hendrickson based on their participation in training camp, or lack thereof, is an impossible task. But once the season begins, assuming the players return to the field, they’ll be under a microscope and questions will linger about how the holdout played into their latest chapter.
(Top photo of Micah Parsons: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)