Lamb, Parsons absent as Dallas starts workouts

Cowboys wide receiver

CeeDee Lamb and pass rusher Micah Parsons were absent at the start of voluntary workouts Monday, underscoring their contract situations as dramatic offseason subplots in Dallas.

Lamb enters the final year of his contract, a fifth-year option worth a guaranteed $17.199 million, after being named first-team All-Pro in 2023.

Parsons has two years remaining under team control including a fifthyear option for 2025. His absence was expected after the Cowboys permitted Parsons to work out on his own. He was seventh in the NFL last season with 14 sacks.

Parsons is owed a base salary of $2.99 million in 2024 with a projected fifth-year option in 2025 for $21.32 million.

Dallas also faces contract talks with QB Dak Prescott. He is in the final year of a four-year, $160 million contract.

Bengals: Franchisetagged wide receiver Tee Higgins, who requested a trade earlier this offseason, now says he is looking forward to playing for Cincinnati in 2024, UPI reported. “I’ve grown a love for Cincinnati that I didn’t think I would,” he told reporters Sunday at his youth football camp Sunday in Loveland,

Ohio. The Bengals designated Higgins as their franchise tag player in February, keeping him under contractual control for at least one more season. Higgins, a second-round pick in 2020, would make $21.8 million under the terms of the franchise tag.

Colts: Defensive tackle DeForest Buckner signed a two-year extension through 2026. Indianapolis will pay Buckner a total of $46 million for the 2025 and ’26 seasons after the final year of his four-year, $84 million deal expires at the end of the upcoming season, according to reports.

Buckner, 30, joins the top five at his position in terms of annual average salary. The Colts acquired Buckner prior to the 2020 season from the San Francisco 49ers, and he’s paid them back handsomely with 32.5 sacks in four seasons in Indianapolis, missing only one game.

Eagles: The team exercised the fifth-year option for wide receiver

DeVonta Smith and agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension through 2028. Smith’s option for 2025 is worth $15.6 million and NFL Network reported the extension is for $75 million, with $51 million guaranteed.

Smith, 25, has 240 catches for 3,178 yards and 19 touchdowns in 50 games (49 starts) since being drafted 10th overall in 2021 out of Alabama.

The $25 million average annual value of Smith’s extension equals fellow Philadelphia wideout A.J. Brown’s deal and trails only the Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill ($30 million), the Raiders’ Davante Adams ($28 million) and the Los Angeles Rams’

Cooper Kupp ($26.7 million).