Category: CeeDee Lamb

Cowboys’ Lamb lost for answers on offense’s identity, consistency

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys had no answers for the 49ers. But after a 42-10 loss, CeeDee Lamb repeatedly had the same reply to questions about the offense.

For the duration of Sunday night’s blowout in the Bay, the Cowboys had no answers whatsoever for the 49ers.

Shortly after the 42-10 trouncing, though, Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb repeatedly had the same bewildered reply.

“What’s the identity of this offense?” Lamb was asked at his locker.

“I don’t know,” came his dejected response.

“Should you, five weeks into the season?”

“I guess so. I don’t know.”

“How do you guys find it?”

“I don’t know.”

Lamb and the Cowboys offense was similarly flummoxed for the entire night in what was supposed to be a clash of evenly-matched NFC powers. Instead, the most eagerly-anticipated showdown of the young 2023 season turned into a one-sided affair right from the jump and stayed that way for three hours.

Week 5’s embarrassing defeat was far worse than the playoff losses suffered at the hands of the 49ers in consecutive years. For all who believed the Cowboys had made the necessary offseason changes to finally get that red-and-gold monkey off the team’s back, Sunday’s primetime humiliation left them grasping to make sense of what had just happened.

“How did it get away from you guys tonight?” Lamb was asked.

“Wish I could tell you,” was all the visibly dejected receiver could offer. “Wish I could tell you.”

The cold, hard stats certainly say plenty about the offense’s ineffectiveness. They registered just eight first downs all night and didn’t get their first until their fifth possession. Their average drive started at their own 21, lasted fewer than four plays, and gained a pitiful 15 yards. They were held to under 200 yards of total offense. They never took a snap from any closer than 26 yards to the 49ers end zone. They held the ball for less than 23 minutes.

That’s a far cry from the kind of numbers Dallas put up in easy, commanding wins over the Giants, Jets, and Patriots. The team’s point average in those three games: 36.

But the revamped offense, now under the play-calling direction of head coach Mike McCarthy, scored just 10 against San Francisco in a game that coaches and players alike had openly called a “measuring stick.”

“We’ve got to be complete,” Lamb put it bluntly. “We can’t go out there one week and look like a superteam and then the following week, [expletive] the bed.”

Lamb, who is under contract through 2024 but has been the subject of recent extension talks in Dallas, led the team with just 49 receiving yards, hauling in four catches on five targets. Replays showed him to be open far more frequently than that. His body language- on the field, on the sideline, and in the locker room- made his frustration evident.

 

“They did a phenomenal job, playing two-high,” Lamb told reporters of San Francisco’s defense. “They schemed well. They got after the quarterback a little bit. Overall, we couldn’t get the offense going. We had plenty of three-and-outs.”

Four. Dallas had four three-and-outs, all in the first half while the score was still relatively close.

After the break, quarterback Dak Prescott threw interceptions on three straight possessions, trying to play catch-up, to end drives of three, two, and three plays.

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Now Lamb, Prescott, McCarthy, and the Dallas offense have no choice but to go back to the drawing board to try to find some new answers, starting with another West Coast trip this weekend to face the Chargers and former OC Kellen Moore.

Lamb knows it will take more than their next week of practice, more than their next win to get past this gut-punch failure in San Francisco.

“We’ve got 12 other games to compete in,” he observed.

But if the Cowboys offense doesn’t find some answers- soon- on how to be consistent performers, they’ll be at a loss for far more than words.

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Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb on historic pace

CeeDee Lamb is continuing to evolve as a pass-catcher and @ReidDHanson finds him on an unbelievable and historic pace for the Cowboys in 2023.

When CeeDee Lamb fell to the Cowboys in the 2020 NFL draft, Dallas’ draft strategy flew right out the window. They never entertained the idea of Lamb, someone who many perceived to be the top WR in the class, to be available at No. 17. So when the Oklahoma standout fell into their laps, they were caught off guard.

Despite the surprise, it didn’t take a strategy session or practice simulations to know what to do when a player like Lamb is standing front and center. The Cowboys drafted him, and as they say, the rest is history.

Since joining the Cowboys three years ago, Lamb has posted year-over-year improvement working alongside a variety of teammates and playing in a variety of roles. He’s risen to every occasion and is currently making the case to be considered one of the NFL’s preeminent superstars.

Leading up to the current season, there was some concern Lamb’s numbers would start to plateau in 2023. Mike McCarthy took the reins as chief play-caller and seemed determined to limit risk on offense.

Playing with an elite defense meant McCarthy wanted a safer passing attack and ever-present ground game. Coupled with a deep WR corps, there was a fear Lamb was in store for a reduced target share and less big play opportunities downfield.

Through two games, Lamb has put those fears to bed.

With 220 receiving yards on 15 receptions, Lamb currently ranks sixth and seventh in the league, respectively. His 88.2 catch percentage is staggeringly high. There’s not a single player in the top-30 in receptions who bests Lamb’s catch percentage, and his 12.9 yards per target leads the league for those with 15+ receptions.

Lamb is on pace to pull in over 127 receptions for 1,870 yards in 2023. That yardage would give Lamb the fourth-highest single-season total in NFL history, bumping Jerry Rice down to fifth.

Working against Lamb, however, is his current target share.

With so many good targets on the roster, it’s probably unsustainable. Michael Gallup and Brandin Cooks will surely see an uptick and even the Dallas TE group will likely see a growing role in coming weeks.

Then again, the Cowboys have yet to even be in a close game. They’ve won the first two weeks by a combined 70-10 and haven’t had the need to fire shots downfield. Lamb has posted these gaudy numbers with Dallas playing somewhat conservatively.

There’s a strong likelihood the offense will open up when the scores become tighter and McCarthy has to generate more on the offensive side.

It’s too early to predict how things will unfold over the next 15 games but early returns show Lamb is on pace for some all-time numbers. His growth in the Cowboys’ offense has yet to plateau and the 24-year-old will post his best year yet.

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The Cowboys are now in a race to sign CeeDee Lamb to a new deal

With Lamb eligible for a new contract, the meter is only going to keep running the longer the Cowboys are idle. | From @ReidDHanson

The Cowboys are in a race, and the season hasn’t even started yet. It’s a race to sign star receiver CeeDee Lamb before the market gets reset. If they win the race, the deal will be based on a market currently capped at $30 million per season by the Miami Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill. If they lose the race, they likely deal with an expanded market where the ceiling well exceeds that amount.

Justin Jefferson, the Minnesota Vikings’ star target, also seeks a new deal. Since joining the NFL, Jefferson has been, by most accounts, the most productive WR in the league.

Both players are entering their fourth season in the league and even though both had their fifth-year options picked up, both are currently negotiating long-term deals to stay with their respective franchises.

Jefferson is expected to reset the market at the WR position. He knows it. The Vikings know it. And the NFL knows it. The question isn’t if he resets the market, it’s by how much. Which explains why Lamb’s camp may not be eager to jump the gun and agree to a new deal before they see the new parameters of the WR market.

That’s the hurdle the Cowboys must find a way to overcome. They can’t make a deal without Lamb’s participation and Lamb’s side seems incentivized to see how the Jefferson market plays out.

To make him play ball, the Cowboys may have to blow Lamb out of the water with their offer.

As discussed with previous Dak Prescott and Trevon Digg’s contract articles, overpaying today is often cheaper than getting a good deal tomorrow. Markets inevitably rise year over year and the latest norms of today seemed absurd just a few months prior.

Is Lamb better than Hill, the NFL’s highest-paid WR? Not yet, but Lamb is five years younger with his best seasons ahead of him. The same can’t be said for most of the other names who populate the highest-paid list. In fact, of the top-30 highest-paid WRs (based on average annual compensation), the youngest of the bunch is 26-years-old with many knocking at the door to 30.

At 24-years-old, Lamb is clearly on his physical ascent. He has progressed every year he’s been in the league and the Cowboys are expecting another leap in 2023. He’s exactly the type of player Dallas wants to invest in.

Another fun fact about the list of top earners is many of them are represented by the same agency Lambs is. An agency the Cowboys have struggled to work with over the years.

CAA Sports (which employes Prescott’s agent, Todd France) represents four of the top-11 WRs on the highest-paid list. They know the cost of doing business goes up each day and will need convincing to accept a deal before Jefferson.

Even if it means rivaling Hill’s enormous contract, it will likely be cheaper for the Cowboys than waiting until Jefferson’s new deal gets finalized.

Dallas may need to compromise on the length and guarantees to get him to the table early. Negotiations rarely go perfectly. But it behooves the Cowboys to beat Jefferson and the Vikings.

The race is on.

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CeeDee Lamb Funko Pop released to celebrate start of NFL season

Be the first to own this exclusive CeeDee Lamb Dallas Cowboys Funko Pop.

One of the NFL’s best WRs is getting the Funko Pop treatment.

Fanatics is releasing exclusive Funko Pops for a handful of NFL stars, and CeeDee Lamb is one of the lucky few.

CeeDee Lamb Funko Pop
CeeDee Lamb Funko Pop (Fanatics)

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In addition to Lamb, Fanatics’ first batch of Exclusive NFL Funkos also includes WR Devonta Smith, CB Ahmad Sauce Gardner, QB Kenny Pickett and WR Justin Jefferson.

Lamb led the Cowboys with 107 receptions, 1,359 receiving yards, and nine touchdowns last season. The 24-year-old is expected to lead Dallas’ receiving corps again this year.

CeeDee Lamb Funko Pop
CeeDee Lamb Funko Pop (Fanatics)

Check back before the regular season for the launch of more NFL Funkos, and until then you can view the entire NFL Funko Pop collection at Fanatics.

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Ranking CBs who have to try and stop CeeDee Lamb in 2023

Can a lamb be a goat? He can if he emerges from this gauntlet of CBs with a record-setting season. | From @KDDrummondNFL

Cedarian DeLeon Lamb is a man of many talents. Widely panned as one of the top-10 wideouts in a league that has gone pass happy, there’s no question the Dallas Cowboys are pleased with the progression of their 2020 first-round pick. Lamb has ascended to true WR1 status and may have yet to reach his ceiling.

He was the only viable pass-catching weapon for Dak Prescott to throw to for many weeks in 2022. Now, with Brandin Cooks opposite him along with a hopefully-more-mobile Michael Gallup, Lamb is once again part of a contingent that commands respect from opposing coordinators. He will always be the focus of defensive gameplanning, but the other weapons have to be respected. That should open up even more opportunities for Lamb after a 107-catch, 1.359-yard, nine-touchdown campaign.

The result of a better supporting cast will play out in one of two ways. Either Lamb is facing one-on-ones galore or he gets to play against the lesser talented defenders who get help. The former theoretically allows Lamb longer developing opportunities, the latter quick strikes with run-after-the-catch possibilities.

Here’s a look at exactly who will be tasked with slowing down his march towards a 1,500-yard campaign. Ranked according to difficulty.

Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb now leading ‘one of the fastest rooms I’ve been in’

From @ToddBrock24f7: A healthy Gallup, a still-speedy Cooks, a rested Turpin, a developing Tolbert. Lamb expects big- and fast- things from the Cowboys WR corps.

Last season was the first in which CeeDee Lamb was the undisputed WR1 in Dallas. But most of 2022 felt a little like an Oscar-winning actor playing Hamlet with a community theater troupe. When the lights came on, there was what Lamb was doing in the lead role… and then there was his supporting cast, trying admirably to perform in kind.

The Cowboys receiver entering his fourth season definitely heard the rumblings when the team was so publicly courting Odell Beckham Jr. He is well aware of the current availability of DeAndre Hopkins. He knows there are those who believe Amari Cooper should still be wearing the star.

Instead of bringing in another alpha receiver and creating confusion over who the top dog is in the room, the Dallas front office traded for Brandin Cooks. The veteran brings a ton of experience and legitimate skills, but he’s clearly penciled in as a complement to the group’s leader, not a competitor.

Add in a fully-healthy Michael Gallup, a stable of young developing receivers, and even the explosiveness of a (finally) rested KaVontae Turpin, and Lamb believes whole-heartedly in the WR corps the Cowboys have assembled for 2023.

“Absolutely,” Lamb confirmed to reporters this week. “By us adding B-Cooks, and then we’ve got MG back healthy, and then of course me, and then all the other guys. We’ve got Turp, we’ve got a lot of other guys that can really make plays and are very fast, very young, have fresh legs. Very confident in each and every one of them.”

Others outside the building were less confident after watching Gallup return from a January 2022 ACL tear. He came back to appear in 14 games last season but was plainly in less than peak form. Most experts say a bounceback to full athletic ability takes more than a year, and Gallup himself has said he only just now feels like himself again.

Lamb sees it, too.

“Right now, at this point in time, you’ve got to keep him on the ground,” Lamb said of Gallup. “He wants to show everybody how springy he is; we know how MG is. He’s very excited. I can’t wait for camp for him to unleash and then show everybody what he can actually do.”

The Cowboys placed lofty expectations on Jalen Tolbert in his rookie year. The small-school product was taken with a third-round pick, and Dallas had hoped he would be an immediate contributor, picking up slack left by Gallup’s injury and Cooper’s departure. They now admit it was too big an ask; Tolbert caught two balls in eight game appearances for 12 yards.

But Lamb says the 24-year-old has made great strides this offseason.

“He has gotten better: route running, his ability to catch in traffic, his confidence is growing,” Lamb told media members at The Star on Friday. “You can see it. Day by day, as we go, he’s continuing to ask questions, he’s staying late after meetings. You can tell the determination is there. All he’s got to do is keep working.”

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As for Cooks, Lamb- like everyone in Dallas thus far- has been impressed with everything the nine-year-veteran has brought to his fifth pro locker room.

“He’s a great guy. Great player, great teammate,” Lamb offered of his new sidekick. “Kind of getting together on and off the field, feeling him out as a person and not so much as a teammate, understanding him so when we get out on the field, it’s almost like second nature. Being out there with him is a great time, understanding that he’s a playmaker, and any time he’s making a play, it’s a big play.”

But it’s the speed that still jumps out when watching Cooks. That’s the magic ingredient that will make him a legitimate deep-ball threat in the Cowboys offense and open things up for everyone else.

Including Lamb.

“My coach told me bringing him in would be the best thing for me, and it is,” the two-time Pro Bowler said.

“Love his speed, love his speed.”

There’s plenty of that to go around now in the Cowboys WR room, especially when you add in Turpin, the USFL MVP who came to Dallas and raced right into the 2022 NFL preseason, playing 33 games (and a Pro Bowl) without a break. He never got a real opportunity to bring his lightning speed to the offense as was the plan, but that is expected to change this season.

Lamb has seen it on the practice field, and he says Turpin alone could be the piece that makes this 2023 group as a whole the fastest he’s ever been a part of.

Maybe.

“I don’t know, because I’m taking Turp over pretty much anybody, but Coop is going to have something to say about that,” Lamb laughed. “I like this room now, for sure. It could be one of the fastest rooms I’ve been in. And I love it.”

Fastest room, second-fastest room, the room is unquestionably Lamb’s now.

And this year, it feels like the supporting cast is ready to truly share the stage with its leading man. And the star is ready to help everyone around him shine.

“At the end of the day,” Lamb explained, “it’s going to all fall on me, as far as the group goes. And I’m okay with that. That’s why Jerry brought me here. I’ve definitely been prepared for the moment, because I’ve never seen myself not a 1. Just holding myself to a higher standard and being able to lead.”

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CeeDee Lamb once again Cowboys’ top-slot option in 2023

There’s no longer a stigma to the position, and with an improved supporting cast the Cowboys’ star could shatter ceilings says @ReidDHanson.

2023 will be a season of change for the Cowboys offense. The offensive coordinator, offensive line coach, running back coach and play-caller all changed over the offseason. With those key changes, the blocking scheme, personnel and overall philosophy also stand to change.

By adding Brandin Cooks at WR and parting with TE Dalton Schultz, Dallas could see an uptick in 11 personnel (3WR packages) in 2023. And the running game will certainly look different with Ezekiel Elliott now gone and Tony Pollard alone at the helm.

One area that doesn’t figure to change is CeeDee Lamb’s status as the top slot receiver in Dallas.

Not long ago, “slot receiver” was considered a derogatory term. Receivers who played inside were often seen as ones who couldn’t hack it outside. That’s no longer the case.

Smart teams in today’s NFL frequently deploy their very best weapons from the slot position. It provides the best opportunities for the best players and allows offenses better means to attack the middle of the field.

Players like Davante Adams, Justin Jefferson, Cooper Kupp, Tyreek Hill and Amon-Ra St. Brown have helped take the stigma out of the slot label.

In 2022 Lamb worked the slot position to perfection, collecting 867 of his 1,359 receiving yards from inside and posting a 2.43 yards per slot route run. His play made him the most productive slot weapon in the NFL (based on pure yardage) and all but assures a return to the inside in 2023.

As a receiver, Lamb didn’t get much help in 2022. Amari Cooper was gone, Michael Gallup was noticeably hampered as he recovered from a February ACL surgery, and for large stretches Noah Brown was asked to serve as the WR2.

Defenses didn’t have much to fear outside of Lamb, yet they still struggled to stop him. With a 28.7 percent overall target share, Lamb ranked as a top-10 WR in the NFL. And his 84.8 expected points added over the season, ranked top-5.

It was clear, the Cowboys found the formula to maximize Lamb.

Adding the veteran Brandin Cooks to the WR room changes the dynamic considerably.  The 29-year-old burner easily slides into the No. 2 role in Dallas. Like Lamb, he’s also spent time inside and one of his most successful seasons (2021) came when he took 187 snaps from the slot.

Ideally, Dallas will see this position versatility from lamb and Cooks as an advantage to their attack. They can move both players in and out of the slot to exploit match-ups and create opportunities.

It changes the way the Cowboys strategize their attack in 2023 but is unlikely to change Lamb’s overall status as Dallas’ primary weapon inside.

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CeeDee Lamb extension ‘bigger priority’ following Cowboys draft, per Jones

Stephen Jones says locking in a long-term deal is still “on our radar,” but it will start with exercising Lamb’s fifth-year option by May 1. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Locking down wide receiver CeeDee Lamb’s place on the Cowboys roster for the foreseeable future with a contract extension is something the team has said they’re open to doing this offseason.

“Obviously, they’re in our plans long-term, executive vice president Stephen Jones went on record as saying back in February, referring to Lamb and his 2020 draft-classmate Trevon Diggs.

The first step to securing Lamb’s services beyond this season, though, is exercising the fifth-year option on his rookie deal. That would set his 2024 salary at $17.99 million. And all they have to do to flip that switch is say the word before May 1, the day after draft weekend.

But they haven’t done so yet.

“Well, obviously, our focus has been on keeping the guys who were free [agents], you know, keeping the guys that we could keep,” Jones told the K&C Masterpiece on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday. “But we’re not able to, you know, always have a clean run. But as we said, we were certainly thrilled to get Dono[van] Wilson in the mix there. Certainly, we lost some tough ones in terms of Dalton [Schultz] and then, of course, Connor McGovern. But you know, that’s certainly our priority. As we move forward, that’ll become a bigger priority here as we move past the draft.”

To be fair, the Cowboys front office did have a busier free agency period than had become typical in recent years. They pulled off two major trades to get wide receiver Brandin Cooks and cornerback Stephon Gilmore, and they also managed to re-sign a majority of the players they wanted to keep.

So getting advance deals done on guys like Lamb and Diggs may not have been a big priority, especially with seven draft picks to prep for.

And who knows? The draft could potentially see a prospect come the Cowboys’ way that changes the club’s thinking on any player on the roster, and the Joneses do love to keep their options open as long as humanly possible.

Dallas is widely thought to be in the market for wide receiver help in this year’s draft, maybe even in the first round, where they lucked into landing Lamb in 2020. And if a Jaxon Smith-Njigba or a Zay Flowers ends up joining the Cowboys, well, that could theoretically change the team’s plans at the position.

But it’s a far safer bet that the team will simply exercise the fifth-year option on Lamb by the May 1 deadline… and then still sit down to re-work a longer-term contract over the summer. That deal would earn Lamb a higher payday but would ease the club’s scheduled $18 million 2024 cap hit.

That, Jones reminded, is something else the Cowboys front office loves to do. As Cowboys Wire documented earlier this month, the team took this same approach with Tyron Smith in 2015, Travis Frederick in 2016, Zack Martin in 2017, and Ezekiel Elliott in 2018. (It should be noted, though, that Elliott exercised some leverage of his own and stayed away from training camp after the fifth-year option was utilized. His mega-deal wasn’t inked until September of that year.)

“We’ve historically signed a lot of guys during that training camp period to extensions, but you know, guys like CeeDee Lamb and Diggs are certainly on our radar in terms of guys that we’d love to have around here for another five, six years, whatever that turns out to be.”

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LOOK: Cowboys’ Lamb gets back tattoo honoring Kobe, I-45 corridor

The Cowboys star receiver’s new tattoo won’t be visible on the field, but it’s a work worth taking a look at. | From @CDBurnett7

The Cowboys watched the rise of wide receiver CeeDee Lamb into a bona fide star in 2022. The third-year man out of Oklahoma responded to the loss of running mate Amari Cooper with the best year of his career, a team-leading 107 catches for 1,359 yards and nine touchdown grabs. Lamb was lone bright spot on offense in the divisional round loss to the 49ers with 10 catches for 117 yards.

This astonishing season earned Lamb second-team All-Pro honors and he’ll be earning a big payday in the next year or so. A large part of Lamb’s star power is his identity and swagger on the field with an endless bag of celebrations and the football aesthetics to match. This week, he added to it with an extensive tattoo piece on his back.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Co8hrbGpQiL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

The artwork was completed by four artists working at once and it features an ode to the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant, a gladiator helmet and a lion’s roar, not to mention homage to I-45, the corridor that links Houston to Dallas and all parts in between. The words “my story isn’t over” also match Lamb’s career with plenty of time to evolve his already impressive resumé at 23 years old. While it won’t be on display while he’s catching touchdowns, it’s an astounding piece of art.

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Lamb, Prescott clicking with playoffs looming; Cowboys single-season record within reach

On a tear since Prescott’s return, Lamb needs 10 catches Sunday to log the most ever in a single season by a Cowboy. | From @ToddBrock24f7

In March, the Cowboys dealt away four-time Pro Bowler and former trade prize Amari Cooper after just three and half seasons with the club, leaving then-22-year-old CeeDee Lamb as the offense’s No. 1 receiver.

Click.

In May, veteran quarterback and face of the franchise Dak Prescott asked the Cowboys to relocate Lamb’s locker to be right next to his own to foster more communication and a stronger chemistry between the two.

Click.

In Week 12, Lamb set a new personal best for receiving touchdowns in a season.

In Week 15, he set new personal bests for targets and receptions in a season.

In Week 16, he set a new personal best for receiving yards in a season.

Click. Click. Click.

It’s been Lamb’s most prolific regular season since turning pro. What he and Prescott do Sunday will only add to it.

“We’ve been clicking,” Lamb said Thursday on SiriusXM NFL Radio with hosts Bruce Murray and Rich Gannon. “Quite honestly, I feel the best I’ve ever felt. I feel the most confident I’ve ever felt within the scheme, the offense, and- honestly- myself. I’m growing.”

That growth has netted Lamb his first outright Pro Bowl nod- after being selected as an alternate in 2021- and put him on the cusp of making franchise history.

Click.

With 10 catches versus Washington, the team’s first-round draft pick in 2020 will become the Cowboys’ all-time single-season leader in receptions. And with 100 more yards, he’ll turn in the third-best single season in that category, trailing only Michael Irvin in a pair of Super Bowl-winning campaigns.

Yes, he’ll be breaking marks that were set in 16-game seasons. But consider that Lamb will have done it this year with a backup quarterback for nearly one-third of his outings.

“I didn’t have my quarterback the first five games [after the season opener], Lamb recalled. “Obviously, we didn’t have the position to really just build and grow together with the defense. Granted, we had a whole training camp and all of that, but you can’t really prepare for the real thing unless you go through it.”

The difference between the two halves of Lamb’s season is stark:

Games 1-8 42 receptions 556 yards 3 TDs
Games 9-16 60 receptions 751 yards 5 TDs

Lamb called the five weeks without Prescott “an opportunity to grow” into the WR1 role, seeing things on the field in a way he hadn’t previously.

Prescott’s first two games back after a fracture of his throwing-hand thumb served almost as a preseason for the pair as they worked to establish their connection. In Week 10, though, they caught fire. Lamb finished that day in Green Bay tying career highs in targets (15), receptions (11), and touchdowns (2); and setting a new career best in receiving yards (150).

The accelerated pace they’ve been on since then has Lamb entering the final weekend of games ranked No. 7 in the league in receiving yards and No. 5 in receptions. He finished 2021 in 15th and 21st place, respectively.

Click. Click.

“We’re growing as a unit, as a quarterback-and-receiver duo,” Lamb explained. “I love every bit of it. The process is amazing, and all of the work that we put in in the offseason leading up to this point has been a grind. We’ve done it behind closed doors. So no one really understands the type of time and type of effort and conversations that we’ve had, once again, coming up to this point, but [we’re] just letting it all show in our play and us just being always on the same schedule and just connecting.”

Now Lamb will look for that connection with his quarterback to click into an even higher gear as they aim for places that neither has seen before.

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