Dallas Cowboys: DeMarcus Lawrence has lofty goals in 2019

Despite still recovering from shoulder surgery, DeMarcus Lawrence has some lofty goals after signing a five-year contract with the Dallas Cowboys this offseason

In 2018, Dallas Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence bet on himself. Once he was hit with the franchise tag ahead of the season, he simply signed it and said he was going to show he deserves a long-term deal.

The Cowboys were hesitant to give that extension considering Lawrence’s injury concerns and the fact that he had just one sack in 2016 before his 14.5 sack performance during his contract year.

Lawrence silenced those concerns as he again hit double digits while setting a career-high with 64 tackles. He even did that with a torn labrum in his shoulder slowing him down for the majority of the year.

After some back and forth during the negotiation period, Lawrence and the Cowboys agreed to a five-year $105 million deal. The defensive end then had surgery to repair his shoulder tear but he doesn’t expect that to stop him from having a huge season.

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Lawrence recently discussed Von Miller saying he wants to beat Michael Strahan‘s sack record of 22.5. The Dallas defensive end believes that he can go after that record as well but wants to do it before Miller. In fact, he even said he wants to be the best to ever play the game.

"“My goal is to be the best that’s ever played this game,” Lawrence said Saturday at SportsCon 2019 in Dallas according to Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk. “For sure, I want to beat that sack record, make it my own, so he can talk about beating my record. I’m going to just wait until I get to the season and then worry about sacks.”"

Best to ever play is quite a lofty goal, but so too is targeting the sack record. Lawrence has continued to improve as a player and enters 2019 with more talent on the defensive line than they had in 2018 thanks to the addition of Robert Quinn and rookie Trysten Hill.

We’ll have to wait for the season to begin to see if Lawrence can attack that milestone — or if he can even be ready by Week 1 after having surgery.

If he does, the Cowboys will feel really good about the contract they were so hesitant to give him during the offseason.