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Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer
FRISCO, Texas — CeeDee Lamb cut a lonely figure on the Dallas Cowboys‘ sidelines a few weeks ago. Towel over head or hands on hips, standing by himself mostly, it was not hard to gauge his frustration during the 42-10 loss against the San Francisco 49ers on Oct. 8.
He had four catches on five targets for 49 yards.
Since then, Lamb has caught 19 passes for 275 yards and two touchdowns, including 12 receptions for 158 yards in Sunday’s 43-20 win against the Los Angeles Rams.
The remedy was a Monday conversation between Dak Prescott and Lamb at The Star after the 49ers loss.
“That was just doubling down and making sure he understands and we understand we put a lot of work into this, don’t get frustrated,” Prescott said. “Don’t allow people to see your frustration of when things aren’t going our way. It’s the National Football League. None of this is going to be easy, but that’s when we’ve got to be better. That’s when we got to trust one another more.
“And as we talked about it then, and he said these were his words: ‘Nobody’s worked harder than us or put more work in than us in the offseason.'”
That work started before the official offseason program began with throwing sessions in Prescott’s backyard and continued through the Cowboys’ organized team activities and minicamp. It included a private retreat Prescott hosted in July on Lake Oconee in Georgia with his pass-catchers that featured jet skis, fishing, route running and discussions with O2X, a performance company founded by former Navy SEALs.
While in Oxnard, California, for training camp, Lamb made sure to remind everybody that he and Prescott had yet to play a full season together.
In 2020, Lamb’s rookie season, Prescott suffered a season-ending fractured and dislocated right ankle in Week 5. In 2021, Prescott missed one game with a calf strain and Lamb missed one with a concussion. Then last season, Prescott suffered a broken thumb in Week 2 and missed five games.
Through seven games this season, Lamb is on pace for 112 catches for 1,537 yards and seven touchdowns. The catches would break Hall of Famer Michael Irvin‘s team record by one and his yards would be second to Irvin’s 1,603.
“You can clearly see the connection,” coach Mike McCarthy said.
The Prescott-to-Lamb connection is looking like Roger Staubach-to-Drew Pearson, Troy Aikman-to-Irvin and Tony Romo-to-Jason Witten with its success. In Sunday’s win against the Rams, Lamb had 12 catches on 14 targets. On the season, Lamb has 46 catches on 56 targets. The pair’s 82% success rate is tied with the Carolina Panthers‘ Bryce Young and Adam Thielen for the best of any quarterback-receiver duo with at least 30 attempts.
“Staying open, man, that’s all I can do,” Lamb said. “At my position, he’s relying on me and I’m relying on him. We built the trust coming in. This is Year 3 together, or 4 — dang, I’m getting old — but it’s Year 4 together. A lot of trust.”
Lamb had career highs in catches (12) and yards (158) against the Rams. It was Lamb’s third career game with at least 10 receptions, 100 yards and two touchdown catches, the most such games in franchise history. He has five games with at least 10 receptions, tied with Miles Austin for fourth in team history, trailing Witten (11), Irvin (seven) and Amari Cooper (six).
Lamb reached 300 receptions (currently 306) faster than any Cowboy, in just 56 games.
“Nothing changes with his work ethic,” fellow receiver Brandin Cooks said. “He goes to work every single day of the week, puts it in, so not like that has changed. It’s just that emphasis of getting him the ball, which he deserves as a guy of that caliber.”
Lamb’s strength is his versatility. He can line up in the slot or outside, and over the past two weeks, he has made more plays outside. He has also made plays when things break down, like on his second touchdown when Prescott scrambled and Lamb found an open spot in the end zone.
“I’m not a slot receiver,” Lamb said. “I’m a receiver.”
Lamb is so good that he left owner and general manager Jerry Jones searching for words as he thought about the Cowboys’ pass-catchers he has seen over the years, from Irvin to Witten to Terrell Owens to Dez Bryant.
“I don’t know when we have had a more dominant role played by a receiver,” Jones said. “I can’t remember because he just was in on everything we were trying to do on every series. Obviously, you’ve seen him play at that level. We’ve all seen him play at that level, but I don’t think with so many of our opportunities that he got out there. Phenomenal game for him. But the good news is, he can do some more of that.”
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