It’s easy to lose sight of just how central CeeDee Lamb is to the Cowboys because he’s spent this offseason in the background. While other receivers have soaked up the noise, Dallas’ franchise wideout has mostly been treated like a given - a superstar already in place.
That kind of status didn’t happen by accident. The Cowboys landed Lamb with the 17th pick in 2020 after he slid to them despite being viewed as a top-10 talent.
Dallas already had Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup, so adding Lamb gave the team a three-receiver group that all drew more than 100 targets that season. The timing wasn’t ideal, though.
Mike McCarthy had just replaced Jason Garrett, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated everything, and the offense never fully got to cash in on its strength at receiver. Dallas was 1-3 before Dak Prescott’s major leg injury, and a rough defensive season left Kellen Moore with only so many answers.
Even then, Lamb still put together a strong rookie year with 935 yards and five touchdowns.
From there, the rise kept coming. In 2021, Lamb hit his first 1,000-yard season, made his first Pro Bowl, and became Dallas’ clear No. 1 receiver.
That climb helped push Cooper out the door the following offseason. Then in 2023, Lamb reached another level entirely, leading the NFL in receptions, earning First-Team All-Pro honors, and breaking the Cowboys’ single-season records for catches and receiving touchdowns that Michael Irvin had held since 1995.
He’s dealt with some wear and tear the last two seasons, missing a couple of games each year and playing through injuries in others, but he has never given up his place at the top of the offense. George Pickens is the only Dallas wideout who has even been in the conversation, and that discussion figures to carry into next season. Still, this is a good kind of problem for the Cowboys.
The contract setup only strengthens that reality. Lamb’s cap hit sits well below his $34 million average annual salary because of restructuring and void years, and the dead money attached to the deal makes him nearly impossible to move through 2027 and maybe even in the final year. He’ll only be 29 in 2028, which leaves plenty of room for him to remain a major piece of the offense for the life of the contract.
For 2026, the picture is straightforward: Lamb is the starting receiver and a 100% roster lock. He’ll be back in his usual role as one of Prescott’s favorite targets, even if the outside world keeps debating whether he or Pickens is Dallas’ top wideout.
The players don’t seem bothered by that question at all. Both receivers can thrive in a high-volume offense that still has room for Jake Ferguson, Ryan Flournoy, and others.
And even if Pickens ends up as the more productive receiver next year, Lamb’s situation doesn’t change much. He already has his money, and by all appearances he has been one of Pickens’ biggest supporters on the roster. Lamb and Prescott have both worked to make Pickens feel welcome in Dallas after his rough stretch in Pittsburgh, and they’ve kept backing him during this offseason’s contract issues.
When you have players you can trust at premium positions, you don’t overthink it. Lamb has been that guy since the Cowboys stole him in 2020, and nothing about this offseason suggests that’s about to change.
In Other News...
Jerry Jones Is Already Facing Heat Over One Cowboys Defensive Call
The Cowboys decision to move on from Osa Odighizuwa is already drawing scrutiny, and it is easy to see why. Dallas has been working to trim salary-cap commitments and stockpile draft capital, and the trade was part of that broader plan while also creating a clearer path for younger defensive linemen to play more. It is the kind of roster-management move that can make sense in the abstract, especially for a team trying to balance present needs with future flexibility.
Still, the reaction has not been uniformly positive, because the choice invites an obvious comparison to Kenny Clark, who remains on the roster. One ESPN analyst questioned whether Dallas may have let the better long-term defensive tackle go, and that kind of second-guessing tends to linger when a front office is trying to sell a move as part of a bigger strategy. For Jerry Jones, the challenge now is not just defending the logic of the trade, but proving the Cowboys got the right side of the defensive line equation. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys May Already Regret One Offensive Line Depth Decision
The Cowboys decision not to tender Brock Hoffman looked like a routine depth move at the time, but it has taken on a different feel with the interior line picture shifting again. Hoffman had quietly given Dallas useful flexibility as a backup center and guard, the kind of insurance policy teams tend to miss only after it is gone.
Now the concern is less about what Hoffman was then and more about what Dallas has left behind him. With the lines depth chart already thinned, the Cowboys are leaning more heavily on T.J. Bass behind Cooper Beebe, and Hoffmans ability to handle multiple interior spots makes the choice to move on from him look increasingly questionable. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Still Have One Line Problem That Could Haunt 2026
The Cowboys spent the offseason reshaping parts of their defense, moving on from Matt Eberflus, bringing in Christian Parker and adding new pieces around that side of the ball. But for all the attention on those changes, the more uneasy question may still be up front on offense, where the tackle spots look awfully familiar and awfully unsettled heading toward the next season.
Tyler Guyton and Terence Steele are still the names most likely to open at tackle, even though neither has given Dallas much reason to feel settled there in recent years. The team did add Drew Shelton as a developmental option, but he is not viewed as someone who can push for a starting job right away, which leaves the Cowboys with more hope than competition at a position group that could end up mattering just as much as any defensive overhaul. [Read more 🡒]