Battling a shoulder injury for a few weeks, CeeDee Lamb will not continue to play through the issue. The Cowboys are shutting down their recently extended wide receiver.
Additional testing conducted this week will lead the Cowboys (via NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo) to sit Lamb during the season’s final two games. Lamb, however, is not expected to need surgery. It could be implied from this report that Lamb would have remained active had the Cowboys been vying for a playoff spot. Now that they are eliminated, their top weapon will be shut down.
Lamb signed a monster extension this offseason, with the Cowboys giving in on term length. Preferring five- or six-year deals, the Cowboys granted Lamb a four-year re-up worth $168MM ($67MM at signing). Lamb’s $25MM 2026 base salary will lock in by 2025. This shoulder setback figures to be relatively minor for the fifth-year wideout in the grand scheme, as no surgery being expected should not threaten any training camp availability.
It will be somewhat interesting if this issue impacted Lamb’s availability for voluntary Dallas workouts come April. Those will be of greater importance if the Cowboys do not give Mike McCarthy another contract. Lamb being off the field will hinder Dallas’ ability to add more wins to their season total, something that would play into the team’s thinking on McCarthy. Despite being a lame duck, however, the fifth-year Cowboys HC has seemingly reestablished some momentum as he attempts to cement his case to stay.
Dak Prescott‘s midseason hamstring injury hampered Dallas’ passing attack, but Lamb has remained productive. The 2020 first-round pick posted his fourth straight 1,000-yard season, finishing with 101 catches for 1,194 yards. While this is well south of where Lamb got to in 2023 (135/1,749), he played 17 games and had Prescott targeting him throughout. Making a handful of starts like he did in 2022, Cooper Rush has done a good job finding his All-Pro weapon. Lamb’s 79.6 yards-per-game number barely trails his 2022 rate (79.6). He will be back in place as Dallas’ lead wideout in 2025.
I’m sure the Eagles are happy about that.
Cowboys won a pointless game hurting their draft order so Jerry took away their biggest weapon. It was dumb to keep running him out there after they were eliminated.
There goes the playoffs!
Respect lamb for the toughness but yeah buddy season is over
I suppose the Cowboys figure Lamb can’t overtake Chase for the receptions title this season despite trailing by just 7 catches. Lamb broke the 100 receptions barrier though, so he probably cashes in on any performance incentive that might have been attached to his contract.