Who's in on CeeDee Lamb? With Amari Cooper gone, he's going to be Dallas' No. 1 wideout, and the No. 2, Michael Gallup, is coming off a torn ACL that might limit him early on. But Lamb's early price tag looks a little scary to me.
In the Experts Draft for the magazine, he was the 7th wide receiver drafted, just four picks into the second round. For him to live up to that, he'll need to outperfom Dallas's other top wide receivers in the Dak Prescott era. The offense hasn't tended to force balls into one player.
Prescott's been starting since 2016, with the one year in there where he was hurt early on. In just one of those seasons has the offense had a top-10 wide receiver (PPR scoring). Cooper finished 10th at the position in 2019. In the five other seasons, Dallas' top wide receiver finished 19th (Lamb last year), 15th, 19th, 24th and 33rd. Those are good numbers, but Lamb will need to do more where he's currently being selected.
Table shows the top 3 fantasy wideouts in Dallas's offense since 2016, sorted by rank in each season.
| TOP DALLAS WIDEOUTS, 2016-2021 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Tgt | No | Yds | TD | FF |
| 2021 | CeeDee Lamb | 120 | 79 | 1102 | 6 | 19 |
| 2021 | Amari Cooper | 104 | 68 | 865 | 8 | 27 |
| 2021 | Cedrick Wilson | 61 | 45 | 602 | 6 | 45 |
| 2020 | Amari Cooper | 130 | 92 | 1114 | 5 | 15 |
| 2020 | CeeDee Lamb | 111 | 74 | 935 | 5 | 22 |
| 2020 | Michael Gallup | 105 | 59 | 843 | 5 | 38 |
| 2019 | Amari Cooper | 119 | 79 | 1189 | 8 | 10 |
| 2019 | Michael Gallup | 113 | 66 | 1107 | 6 | 24 |
| 2019 | Randall Cobb | 83 | 55 | 828 | 3 | 42 |
| 2018 | Amari Cooper | 107 | 75 | 1005 | 7 | 19 |
| 2018 | Cole Beasley | 87 | 65 | 672 | 3 | 44 |
| 2018 | Michael Gallup | 68 | 33 | 507 | 2 | 78 |
| 2017 | Dez Bryant | 132 | 69 | 838 | 6 | 24 |
| 2017 | Terrance Williams | 78 | 53 | 568 | 0 | 62 |
| 2017 | Cole Beasley | 63 | 36 | 314 | 4 | 73 |
| 2016 | Cole Beasley | 98 | 75 | 833 | 5 | 33 |
| 2016 | Dez Bryant | 96 | 50 | 796 | 8 | 39 |
| 2016 | Terrance Williams | 61 | 44 | 594 | 4 | 62 |
Lamb added a new twist to the annual reports of players being in the best shape of their lives. Yesterday he said that not only has he added 10 pounds of muscle, but that he grew half an inch in height. He's a younger guy (23 years old), but that would be a little surprising.
Anyway, I like Lamb. Should be the No. 1, no question. But I don't know that I'm selecting him in the top 10 at the position. Seems like he'll be taken a little earlier than I want to, and I'll be more interested in a later selection of Gallup or maybe James Washington.
--Andy Richardson