By Zane Miller

After an impressive college football career at Oklahoma which saw him earn three consecutive conference titles, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb was picked 17^th overall by the Dallas Cowboys in the 2020 NFL Draft. With the 2019 team’s tertiary receiver Randall Cobb leaving via free agency, Lamb was expected to take over in that role for his rookie season.

However, this season would more challenging than most for the rookie class, as the coronavirus pandemic led to the cancellation of the preseason. While new players, such as Lamb, would be able to participate in offseason workouts and practices, their first official action in the NFL would come in week one of the regular season. While Lamb had a decent enough debut in the Sunday night season opener against the Los Angeles Rams, making five catches for 59 yards, he would truly announce his presence back in Arlington the following week.

Facing the Atlanta Falcons on September 20^th, it first appeared as though Dallas was headed for another loss to start the year, with the Falcons up 20-0 after the first quarter and still maintaining a 29-10 lead at the half. However, after the Cowboys offense would come to life in the third quarter. After being held to just two catches in the first half, Lamb caught a 37-yard bomb from quarterback Dak Prescott two minutes into the second half, setting up an eventual touchdown.

Dallas scored on their next drive as well to make it a one-possession contest, but their bottom-five ranked defense allowed another Atlanta touchdown followed by a field goal to fall behind 39-24 with eight minutes remaining. On the ensuing possession, the Cowboys found themselves facing a crucial third down situation, but Prescott found Lamb for a 12-yard gain to keep the drive alive. The team found the end zone a few plays later, but were stuffed on a two-point conversion attempt to remain at a two-possession deficit.

After the Falcons went three-and-out but forced the Cowboys to burn all three timeouts, Lamb and company were again facing a third down to keep any chance at the win on the table. Just as he had on the last drive, Lamb came through in the clutch, making a 14-yard catch to enable another touchdown soon after. The Cowboys were still losing by two points, though, and needed an onside kick to go their way with less than two minutes left. This set up the most infamous onside kick in recent memory.

While the onside attempt from kicker Greg Zuerlein wasn’t particularly special, as it ended up being a simple slow roller towards the sideline, what the Falcons did, or rather didn’t, do proved to make the difference. While there is in fact a rule stating that a kickoff must go at least 10 yards before being recovered, this rule only applies to the kicking team. In this case, the kick went right to a pair of Falcons who could’ve fallen on the ball at any time, but instead hesitated as they seemed to be waiting on the ball to cross the 45-yard line. By the time they realized their mistake, it was too late and picked up by Dallas’ CJ Goodwin just past the 45.

Although the Cowboys were in great field position, Atlanta could still cover up for the blunder with a strong defensive stand as Dallas needed a big chunk of yards to set up Zuerlein for the game-winning field goal. However, it would be none other than Lamb getting the needed yardage, making a 24-yard catch as the now very manageable 47-yard kick sailed through for the 40-39 comeback victory. Lamb ended the day with his first of many 100-yard receiving games, but was still left waiting for his first NFL touchdown.

That wait would end two weeks later against the Cleveland Browns, with Lamb hauling in two touchdowns as Prescott joined the short list of quarterbacks with over 500 passing yards in a single game, 502 yards to be specific. Nonetheless, the Cowboys found themselves struggling early as they still lost 49-38. The issue was exacerbated a week later as Prescott was lost for the rest of the season due to a broken ankle. In turn, Lamb’s production slowed down afterwards, finishing his rookie year with five touchdown grabs and 935 yards, his only season thus far with less than 1,000 receiving yards. Despite playing in a particularly weak NFC East division this year, the Cowboys barely missed out on making the playoffs with a 6-10 record.

While Lamb only had a slight statistical upgrade in his sophomore season of 2021, the Cowboys as a whole improved immensely, doubling their 2020 win total to go 12-5 and easily win the division title. Aided by an extra game on the schedule, Lamb earned 1,102 receiving yards and six touchdowns, though he didn’t find the end zone after the November 14^th rematch against the Falcons, which the Cowboys won in a 43-3 blowout. His best game of the year came on October 17^th versus the New England Patriots in Foxborough, claiming two touchdown catches and a career-high to that point of 149 receiving yards. This included a walkoff touchdown in overtime, with Prescott throwing to a wide open Lamb, who walked in for the 35-yard score.

In the playoffs, the Cowboys would be matched up with the wild-card San Francisco 49ers in the first round and, more specifically, Lamb would be matched up against 49ers cornerbacks Ambry Thomas and Emmanuel Moseley. On paper, the secondary was a weak spot going into the playoffs for an otherwise solid San Francisco defense, as they only managed nine interceptions on the year, just three more than the league-worst Las Vegas Raiders in this regard. On January 16^th, 2022, though, the pair were able to shut down Lamb, who managed just one catch for 10 yards (his official rec yard total came out to 21 after running a lateral for 11 yards late in the game).

Down 23-17 and with less than 30 seconds to work with, the Cowboys made their way into 49er territory. However, in another instance of a team collectively forgetting a rule in the moment, Prescott scrambled up the middle with no timeouts. While this allowed Dallas to put themselves just outside the red zone, they had just seconds to set up and spike the ball. The offensive line was able to get set very quickly, but in doing so formed a human wall preventing the referee from reaching the ball. In the chaos, the center was about to snap it without the referee setting it himself, taking precious seconds off the clock and costing Dallas one more shot at the end zone, ending their season with a first round playoff exit.

The 2022 season saw the Cowboys match their previous record of 12-5, though they lost the NFC East crown to the Philadelphia Eagles. Lamb improved even more as his role in the offense increased, passing 100 catches for the first time in his career with 107 while adding nine touchdowns and 1,359 receiving yards. After a somewhat slow first couple weeks, Lamb came through against the New York Giants with a touchdown and 87 receiving yards in a 23-16 win, before getting a touchdown and 97 yards in a 25-10 victory over the Washington Commanders a week later.

On November 13^th on the road against the Green Bay Packers, Lamb had his best appearance of the season with a pair of touchdown grabs and 150 receiving yards, including a 35-yard score in the third quarter. Despite this, it wasn’t enough to hold off the Packers, who went on to win it 31-28 in overtime. He would cross the 100-yard barrier again versus the Giants, but would have his best stretch of games right at the end of the year.

Facing the Jacksonville Jaguars, Lamb went off for 126 yards through the air, though it wouldn’t be enough to get the win as Jacksonville won 40-34 on an overtime interception return TD. The Cowboys would avenge the defeat the very next week against the Eagles, coincidentally winning by the same 40-34 scoreline as Lamb made 10 catches for 120 yards. The team had a short week for their Thursday Night Football matchup with the Tennessee Titans, but the quick turnaround clearly didn’t bother Lamb as he collected 11 grabs for exactly 100 yards.

The strong finish to the season is likely what pushed Lamb over the edge to a second-team All-Pro designation, the first All-Pro honor of his career. Of course, failing to overtake Philadelphia for the NFC East meant the Cowboys would begin the playoffs on the road, in this instance taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Sunshine State. However, the Cowboys swiftly proved themselves to be the better team regardless, going up 18-0 at halftime and winning handily 31-14. Lamb didn’t need to do much in this game with the Cowboys mainly protecting their lead through the ground game, but still earned 68 receiving yards and his first (and so far, only) career playoff touchdown.

The “only” part in that last sentence is indeed a bad omen for the Cowboys’ fortunes after this point, but Lamb would actually play quite well in the playoff rematch against the 49ers. Determined not to be shut down this time around, Lamb had 10 catches for 117 yards, including a 46-yard bomb midway through the third. However, what could have been a big momentum swing with the game tied at 9-9 was squandered by Dallas, who were forced to punt anyway. San Francisco eventually got the go-ahead touchdown early in the fourth and eliminated the Cowboys for the second year in a row, albeit not without another incredibly weird final play. For this one, Dallas had running back Ezekiel Elliott line up as the center, before promptly being laid out by linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair and the presumed desperation lateral play went nowhere, allowing the 49ers to claim the 19-12 win.

After slowly but surely working his way up in the hierarchy of NFL receivers, Lamb reached his peak level at this point in time during the 2023 season. The now fourth-year receiver not only led the league in catches with 135, but set new career highs in touchdowns with 12 and receiving yards at 1,749. After nabbing 143 yards in week two while beating the New York Jets, Lamb went on a four-week stretch from mid-October to mid-November with triple-digit receiving yardage. Despite getting just seven receptions at the Los Angeles Chargers on October 16^th, Lamb made the most of his opportunities with 117 rec yards in the Cowboys’ 20-17 triumph.

After a bye week, Lamb had his best game during this span as the team returned to AT&T Stadium to host another LA team in the Rams. With Prescott looking to build an MVP campaign, Lamb got the ball 12 times and manifested two touchdowns for 158 yards in a game which was not at all close. Dallas led 33-9 at halftime, going on to win 43-20. Their trip to Philadelphia wouldn’t go as smoothly, however, as the Cowboys fell 28-23, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at Lamb’s stats as he put up a then-career high 191 receiving yards. Coming back to Arlington the next week, the team put a good old-fashioned beatdown on the Giants, winning 49-17 as Lamb registered 151 yards and a touchdown.

Fortunately for the Cowboys, but unfortunately for Lamb’s personal statistics, the team would blow out three of their next four opponents, leaving little motive to utilize the passing game for the majority of these contests. However, on December 30^th, just before the end of the regular season, the team would need Lamb to come through in a close game and he would deliver. Hosting the Detroit Lions in a titanic Monday night battle between two 11-win teams, the Cowboys made a statement in the first quarter as Prescott connected with #88 right at midfield. He wasn’t done there, though, as the covering defensive back tripped up and could only watch as there was nothing but empty turf between Lamb and the end zone. This would inevitably become a 92-yard touchdown pass, paving the way for Lamb to have his first 200-yard receiving game at 227 in total. Side note, the Cowboys have also been a magnet for crazy endings this decade. This happened to be the same game in which the Lions thought they had the game essentially won on a late two-point conversion after a touchdown, but was called back as offensive lineman Taylor Decker was deemed to have not reported as an eligible receiver before catching the apparent two-point score, despite the Lions’ adamantly protesting that he had in fact done so. With the play not being reviewable, the Cowboys held on by the skin of their teeth 20-19.

At season’s end, Lamb was named to his first career first-team All-Pro, finishing third in Offensive Player of the Year voting as well. For the third straight year, the Cowboys went 12-5, capturing yet another NFC East title. While this would give them home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs, the upstart Packers had other plans. With Lamb making just two catches for 18 yards in the first half, Green Bay capitalized on the stalling Cowboy offense to jump out to a 27-7 halftime lead. While they were able to get Lamb going in the second half, as he ended the day with nine catches for 110 yards, the Packers nonetheless kept the game out of reach with their offense firing on all cylinders. Even with a nice comeback attempt, it would be too little, too late for Dallas as Green Bay pulled off the upset 48-32.

After three straight playoff disappointments, Lamb was undoubtedly eager for chance to turn the team’s luck around. However (as of this writing), the Cowboys have not made another playoff appearance since. The 2024 Cowboys fell to 7-10, leading to the firing of head coach Mike McCarthy. Lamb’s production dipped a bit as well with six touchdowns and 1,194 receiving yards (still good enough to claim second-team All-Pro), though it is worth noting that he missed the final two games of the season due to a shoulder injury. His best game of the season came on October 27^th versus none other than the 49ers, as he nabbed two touchdowns and 146 yards, but the recurring theme continued with San Francisco taking the victory 30-24.

The 2025 campaign was a more significant step in the wrong direction, as Lamb battled an ankle injury which kept him out of action for three games. In addition, he and fellow receiver George Pickens were benched for the opening possession of a Monday night game against the Raiders due to a curfew violation, though they would still go on to win 33-16. One bright spot came through on Thanksgiving Day, though, as his season-best game saw him make seven catches for 112 yards and a touchdown in a 31-28 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Dallas suffered another losing season at 7-9-1, but are generally projected to bounce back in 2026 after investing heavily in bolstering their defense in the offseason.

Photo Credit: All-Pro Reels – Wikipedia