Some good news is on the way for the Dallas Cowboys, and it's by way of DeMarcus Lawrence. 

The All-Pro defensive end inked a five-year, $105 million contract extension in late April that made him the highest-paid player on the history of the franchise, and ended what had become a very contentious round of negotiations with the team that led to him weaponizing a torn labrum he battled through in 2018, delivering his second consecutive double-digit sack season in the process. Just days after signing his new deal, Lawrence went under the knife to have his shoulder repaired, and has since been placed on the physically unable to perform list to start training camp. 

He's suffered no setbacks in his rehabilitation and the conditioning that goes along with it, and that's put him on track to uphold his promise of being available when the Cowboys host the New York Giants in the season opener. Lawrence is expected to be activated from the PUP list soon, per Mike Garafolo, in a report that runs parallel to the team's view.

Speaking in mid-July from SportsCon in Dallas, Lawrence explained how he felt with training camp rapidly approaching.

"I'm doing great," he said. "My shoulder's doing great. My mobility is coming back naturally, so everything is on the up right now."

Rushing Lawrence back to a full-blown workload wasn't/isn't something the Cowboys were/are willing to do, and they'll reassess him soon before making a final determination on his PUP status. 

Barring a massive setback of some sort in the next few days, Lawrence will be on the field in 2019 for the Cowboys, and he already has his eyes set on a top prize that could certainly help propel the club to a potential Super Bowl appearance. Having already heard perennial All-Pro linebacker Von Miller declare his intention to take ownership of the league's single-season sack record of 22.5 -- set in 2001 by Hall of Fame pass rusher Michael Strahan -- Lawrence wants in on the race. When asked if he's thought about it at all, his answer was as potent as it was succinct. 

"Absolutely," he said emphatically. "My goal is to be the best to ever play this game, so you know for sure that I'm going to want to beat that sack record and make it my own — so he can talk about beating my record."

Lawrence has been on pace to surpass the record twice in the last two seasons, before trailing off for a variety of reasons, and one was the aforementioned shoulder injury. He's accumulated 25 sacks since the start of the 2018 season, matching Miller in that category. If there are three active NFL players talented enough to finally take down Strahan's already longstanding 18-year-old record, Miller and Lawrence account for two-thirds of that trio -- with Aaron Donald in Los Angeles being the obvious third -- both Miller and Lawrence having also adopting pass-rushing techniques from future Hall of Famer linebacker DeMarcus Ware.

Ware came close himself to surpassing Strahan with 20 sacks in 2008, and readily provides coaching to Miller and Lawrence.

The first step for the latter will be making sure he's a full go on Sept. 8, and still careful to not overstep the authority of the Cowboys' medical staff, Lawrence reaffirmed he'll be ready -- but not until he's cleared medically.

"My main thing is to be ready by Week One," he said.

All things considered, it sounds like he'll definitely get reacquainted with Eli Manning soon.