CeeDee Lamb has probably been personally counting down the minutes and seconds until the Eagles and Cowboys open the NFL season on Thursday night at Lincoln Financial Field.
The elite Dallas receiver had to deal with Cooper Rush pitching him the ball last season after Dak Prescott suffered a season-ending hamstring avulsion in November 2024 against the Atlanta Falcons. It left Lamb with really no one. The Cowboys will George Pickens opposite Lamb, giving the Cowboys one of the NFL’s most formidable
receiver tandems. The Eagles outscored Dallas by a combined 75-13. Lamb only played against the Eagles once, missing the last two regular-season games of 2024 with a right shoulder AC joint sprain. Over his career against the Eagles, Lamb has had 50 catches for 674 yards and has scored five touchdowns in nine games.
Over each of the last three seasons, Lamb is one of two NFL receivers (with Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown) with 100-plus catches, 1,100-plus receiving yards and five-plus receiving touchdowns. He has five-plus catches in each of his past 13 road games and has 100-plus scrimmage yards in each of his four career road Thursday games. Lamb had 11 catches for 191 yards in his last road meeting.
Just imagine Lamb across from Eagles’ free agent corner Adoree’ Jackson. Stellar second-year corner Quinyon Mitchell has the opposite spot and will be a pick-your-poison proposition for Eagles’ defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.
Does Fangio have Mitchell follow Lamb all over the field, or do the Eagles stay pat and whatever side Jackson and Mitchell are assigned, that is where they will stay?
The secondary has been a point of concern throughout training camp for the Eagles, and if Dallas has any chance of stealing the Eagles’ Super Bowl-raising banner night, exploiting that area, given the time, is its best bet. Fangio had no problem moving Mitchell around this summer, which could lead to Fangio trying to lock down Lamb with Mitchell.
According to Pro Football Focus, Lamb lined up in the slot 48-percent of the time (396/of 826 snaps), and lined up wide on 413 snaps, exactly 50-percent. Mitchell is considered an outside corner, where he lined up almost exclusively last season, while Coooper DeJean lined up in the slot.
Here’s the issue the Eagles face: Shut down lamb, and there is still Pickens to deal with. He is considered one of the league’s premier deep threats and his 15 receptions for passes thrown over 20 yards in the air amounted to 515 yards receiving, the most in the NFL last season.
And Lamb and Pickens have Prescott throwing them the ball. Prescott is 9-4 overall against the Eagles, passing for 3,402 yards, 24 touchdowns, against eight interceptions and an average of 7.7 yards a reception.
Making the game a shootout is the only way Dallas has any chance of beating the Eagles, who have beaten the Cowboys four of the last six times the teams played, including three out of the last four. The last time Dallas beat the Eagles at home was Nick Sirianni’s first year as head coach, when he opted to sit his starters in a 51-26 Dallas thumping on January 8, 2022. The Eagles lost to Tom Brady and Tampa Bay in the NFC Wild Card round that season, while Dallas floundered at home in the Wild Card round against San Francisco.
