George Pickens will play for the Dallas Cowboys in 2026. Yay! No holdout. No drama. Just fun and exciting offense for the upcoming season. And let’s not forget how excited fans are about a possible expanded role for Ryan Flournoy, who, with each new day, looks more and more like what we hoped Jalen Tolbert would be.
Amid all the excitement for an offense that should once again be near the top of the league, many have lost sight of just how good CeeDee Lamb is. Why is that? Well, last season was a struggle
for him, if you can call a 75-catch, 1,077-yard season a struggle. For Lamb, that’s a down year as his numbers haven’t been that low since his rookie season when he was sharing targets with Amari Cooper and a healthy Michael Gallup, as well as catching passes from Andy Dalton, Ben DiNucci, and Garrett Gilbert.
While people will remember all his drops and being overshadowed by a new star receiver in the form of George Pickens, there are other elements about his non-CeeDee-like performance that tend to be overlooked. It was a rough season for Lamb as he went through some stuff.
Things started off great for him last year with back-to-back 100-yard games, showing everyone that despite the addition of Pickens and a resurgent ground attack led by Javonte Williams, Lamb was still the alpha of the offense. So much in fact, that they tried to get the ball in his hands anyway possible, including handing the ball off to him, which unfortunately led to a nasty ankle sprain in Week 3 against Chicago. Watching the replay of the Bears defender rolling up on that ankle looked really bad, but surprisingly, the Cowboys’ star wide receiver would only be out of action for the next three games.
High ankle sprains aren’t easy to come back from, especially Grade 2, which, based on the time he missed, is what he likely suffered (there was no official announcement indicating which grade it was). While the time missed is typically three to six weeks, the time to reach 100% is more like two to three months.
For a player like Lamb, an ankle injury takes away his best attributes as a receiver. His bread and butter is predicated on his elite suddenness and masterful deceleration ability. Losing that ankle flex is brutal. His ability to plant that foot and break out at sharp angles had been compromised. He’s a body control marvel, so losing the ability to twist and torque to set him up for contested catches hurts. And his great lateral agility to weave around in the secondary just wasn’t the same with an ailing ankle.
After about a couple of months, Lamb started cooking again with three straight 100-yard games, starting with a thrilling Thanksgiving win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Sadly, he suffered a nasty concussion against Detroit that had many people alarmed as he displayed that scary fencing position with his hands as he was lying on his back.
Lamb returned, and things faded down the stretch, and now some are wondering who’s really the Cowboys’ alpha receiver. The answer to that is still Lamb, and while his production dipped and his higher frequency of drops was disappointing, there is no reason to believe that he won’t be the same star receiver he’s been in recent years. He’s 27 years old and still in his prime.
If Lamb hadn’t gotten hurt, who’s to say he wouldn’t have had another career season? It’s a super small sampling, but before his ankle injury, he was averaging 12 targets, resulting in eight catches for 111 yards, which would have put him on pace for career highs in all of those categories. Surprise! CeeDee Lamb is great! Of course, that’s only a surprise for those suffering from a strong case of recency bias.
And remember, we do not need to choose sides. A healthy Lamb, combined with a highly motivated Pickens, gives the Cowboys a dangerous aerial assault. It never has to be one or the other. This offense has plenty of room for two superstars to feast, and that could be exactly what’s in store for them in 2026.
