FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb have agreed to a four-year, $136 million contract extension that includes $100 million guaranteed and a $38 million signing bonus. The extension ends the star forward’s midseason lockout and could see him return to the team as early as Tuesday.

It was far from perfect timing. The Cowboys knew from the start that this would be the reality: Lamb sat out of team activities before a new deal could be finalized, meaning he would miss voluntary spring workouts, the team’s summer minicamp and the entire training camp in Oxnard.

While Dak Prescott said earlier in training camp that it would only take a practice or two to get back into the swing of things with Lamb, more preparation could still have benefited everyone involved in making the deal. For Lamb, it would have meant more time in an organized setting with his offensive teammates. For the team, it would have been a chance to build an offensive foundation for the season with its most important offensive player.

Still, the deal is being finalized with 13 days to go before the team takes the field to open the season against the Cleveland Browns. Will there be any rust to begin with? It would be foolish to think otherwise, but a rusty Prescott-Lamb connection is a lot better than none at all.

On Monday afternoon, Lamb is headed back from South Florida, where he worked out with specialists while the team was in training camp, arriving at The Star in Frisco on Tuesday to sign his contract and complete his medical before rejoining the team for practice Tuesday night. The rebuilding period will begin once that’s done, as the Cowboys have just a handful of practices to reintegrate Lamb into an offense that has struggled without him for the past three months.

For a talent like Lamb, asking him to scale quickly enough—and smartly enough without risking injury—to be ready for Week 1 isn’t the biggest challenge in the world. But it’s an interesting one, given that Lamb’s contract numbers ultimately seemed to win out and an earlier resolution could have made the process a lot easier. Either way, it’s in his hands to be ready when the first ball is snapped in Ohio.

In any case, he will be one of 11 candidates when that time comes – a reality that may have become a little less clear over the days.