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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