With the NFL moving to a 17-game schedule, a 1,000-yard season means a little less than it used to. But it’s still a threshold that’s ingrained in the DNA of those who play and follow the sport.
And Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb is perched right on the doorstep.
Lamb finished his rookie season with 935 yards, an impressive feat considering he did it with four different quarterbacks, two of whom were Ben DiNucci and Garrett Gilbert. So far this season, Lamb has 890 yards, 13 games into the season. Even after missing Week 12’s contest with a concussion, last year’s first-round draft pick is one big game away from breaking the magic number. He could do it this Sunday against the Giants, the team he burned for his first 100-yard game, as a rookie last year.
The mark that Lamb has made on the Cowboys franchise is already permanent, just 28 games into his pro tenure. With 1,825 yards, he ranks 35th on the club’s all-time receiving list and could surpass storied names like Timmy Newsome, Ron Springs, and Butch Johnson before the regular season wraps up. Lamb is currently in sixth place in team history in yards per game (65.2) and is an incredible third in receptions per game (4.9), even outpacing Dez Bryant, Michael Irvin, and Jason Witten.
The 22-year-old has outperformed several Dallas icons at the outset of his career. His receiving-yards total over his first two seasons is higher than that of Tony Hill, Irvin, Pearson, and Bryant. Lamb trails only Bob Hayes, who logged 2,235 yards over his first two campaigns. (Remarkably, Hayes did that in just 27 games- and on just 110 catches- in 1965 and 1966, a far less pass-happy era in the NFL.)
CeeDee Lamb has 138 receptions in his first two seasons as an NFL wideout, the most catches by a Cowboy in his first two seasons.
— Dallas Cowboys Public Relations (@DallasCowboysPR) December 12, 2021
ESPN’s Todd Archer notes in a Wednesday piece that Lamb’s connection with Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott over their first 16 games together puts the duo on par- so far- with other famous club combos like Meredith-to Hayes, Staubach-to-Pearson, Aikman-to-Irvin, Romo-to-Owens, and Romo-to-Bryant.
Whether Prescott-to-Lamb will go on to live alongside those legends remains to be seen. For now, as the Dallas offense struggles through an uncharacteristic slump, the Louisiana native is more focused on getting back in sync with his quarterback.
“I feel like that kind of sparked early,” Lamb said last week of his connection with Prescott, dating back to last season. “My first five games, it was fun. Then obviously after that, we lost him. And then Year 2, came out hot again. He missed a week, and then I missed a week. After, obviously, the connection’s not going to be the same, so just kind of getting that back. Just getting back to the drawing board, man, that’s all it is.”
If Prescott and Lamb can translate this week’s drawing board to the playing field at MetLife Stadium, it could give the Oklahoma product his first 1,000-yard season… and inch him a bit higher in the Cowboys history books.
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