I CHOOSE DETROIT LIONS: Ceedee Lamb agree new terms’ Leaving Dallas Cowboys is setback for us

Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb has officially arrived as one of NFL’s elite players

The NFL Week 18 notebook takes a closer look at the continued rise of Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, Pro Bowl snubs and more.

Sure, Lamb’s 13-catch, 227-yard statement was punctuated by a 92-yard catch-and-run that was enabled by a defender who slipped and fell to the turf. It was the longest offensive play in the NFL this season and second-longest reception in Dallas Cowboys history, the distance exceeded only by a 95-yard job from the great Bob Hayes in 1963.

Yet so often, Lamb had all types of separation. And we’ve seen this for the better part of the season.

“I just work at it,” Lamb said, rather nonchalantly, as he sat at his locker after the game.

I put the question to Dak Prescott. He grinned.

“He ain’t open enough for me!” the Cowboys quarterback declared.

Prescott also alluded to the extensive hours they have put in to develop QB-WR chemistry. Or as Jerry Jones, team owner and famous hype man put it, “The Aikman-Irvin thing, really shades of that. They’re really hooking up.”

It was fitting that on a night when so many Cowboys legends – including Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin – were at JerryWorld to christen Jimmy Johnson’s induction into the team’s Ring of Honor, Lamb made his own history. He broke the single-season Cowboys records Irvin set in 1995 for catches (111) and receiving yards (1,603) and will head into the regular-season finale at Washington with an NFL-high 122 receptions.

“I worked my tail off to be that and to say that confidently,” he told reporters at the Cowboys headquarters this week. “It’s good to be elite. But how consistent and how long you can be elite in the next challenge.”

Playoff competition should increase the level of difficulty for Lamb. And then there’s a Cowboys running game that has sputtered. Typically, less potent rushing attacks allow for the allocation of defensive manpower to disrupt the passing game.

To this point, though, Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy has been forcing the flow with his high-powered offense. And Lamb’s versatility is a huge key.

“He goes anywhere,” said Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis, whose expert opinion draws on the task of trying to cover Lamb in practice sessions. “He can go outside, inside, the backfield. It’s hard to match up with him…hard to prepare for him because he can be anywhere.”

Lewis calls Lamb a “route guru,” which says something about his knack to bring the X’s and O’s to life.

“He knows where your coverage is soft,” Lewis said. “He beats you that way.”

And in other ways. The physical Lamb is one of the best in the league for racking up yards after the catch. And he’s been lethal with the inside routes, evidenced by his seven TDs while aligned in the slot, which is tied for the NFL high.

Lamb has blossomed since becoming the Cowboys’ top receiver after Amari Cooper was traded to the Cleveland Browns. And he’s also lived up to wearing No. 88, which has its own significance in the Cowboys universe. The number became special to the Cowboys with Drew Pearson during the 1970s and ’80s. Since, it has been represented well by the likes of Irvin and Dez Bryant.

Funny, there was some initial resistance from Lamb about the uniform number when the Cowboys drafted him out of Oklahoma in 2020 with a first-round pick. Lamb apparently wanted to wear No. 2.