Cowboys' CeeDee Lamb Posts Cryptic Spider-Man Photo Amid Contract Rumors, Holdout

Dallas Cowboys star CeeDee Lamb's newest post on social media means, well, something as he continues his holdout this offseason.

The three-time Pro Bowler, who drew comparisons to the famed web-slinger in college, shared a photo of a black-suited Spider-Man in an Instagram story:

A straightforward reading of Lamb's post is that he has become bonded with an alien symbiote that will make him more powerful at the expense of his morality. Maybe he's telling the Cowboys he's prepared to retire from the NFL and embrace a life of fighting crime.

Lamb is in the last year of his rookie contract, with the Cowboys having triggered his $17.9 million option. That makes him the 22nd-highest-paid wideout in the league for 2024 in terms of total cash, and he could conceivably earn as much as double that number on the open market.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones raised some eyebrows when he told reporters on Aug. 8 he didn't consider Lamb's holdout to be an urgent situation, comments that elicited a reaction from the player on social media.

Jones has tried to be more diplomatic while reaffirming Lamb's value to the franchise and allaying any fears with less than a month until the regular season.

But ESPN's Jeff Darlington provided a concerning report Monday on Get Up when he said that "it really doesn't feel like they've gotten to a point where they know the annual salary, where they know the contract length, where they know the real structure of the contract where it becomes guaranteed money."

"So, yes, it could all come together very quickly, but we don't really have any of those things feeling like there is any reason to think it is imminent," Darlington added. "So, the best I can tell you is that behind the scenes, the Cowboys remain optimistic, but until they get much closer to that number, that contract that Justin Jefferson has at $35 million a year, and maybe it doesn't have to be all the way there, we're not there yet."

One way to interpret Lamb's post is that he's prepared to be the bad guy for the time being and exert even more pressure on the Cowboys to meet his asking price.