It seems so easy. The Dallas Cowboys employ one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL in Dak Prescott as well as perhaps the best wide receiver duo across the league in CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. Boom. Done. Anyone can call plays.
Just get them the ball, right? That is sort of how we all tend to look at this kind of thing, but obviously there is more nuance to this idea, especially as the duo accrues more games together and defenses can devise plans to slow them down, or stop them outright.
Last
week’s season-opening loss was hardly the most impressive game that Lamb and Pickens have ever played together, but perhaps there is something that can be learned about what happened.
And specifically what didn’t.
CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens can overwhelm defenses
The old adage is that you can’t double both of the star pass-catchers on a given team. If one is drawing double coverage then the other has a larger opportunity, theoretically speaking, to capitalize.
Living inside of this sort of argument, imagine if they lined up next to each other. Imagine if you were on one side of the defense and they were within about an arm’s reach of each other. Right off of the line of scrimmage, once the ball was snapped, it would be a bit overwhelming for you and your defensive teammates to figure out how to keep everything in front of you.
This idea was highlighted a bit during this week’s insights inside of NFL Pro. It is important to note that the season is as young as it possibly can be which means that the sample size is as small as it possibly can be. Still, we are building this plane as we fly.
Consider that last week the Cowboys ran 32 offensive plays where Lamb and Pickens were on opposite sides of the formation. It makes sense to do this. Spread the wealth, so to speak.
In total, nine of these 32 plays led to conversions for a first down and the Cowboys averaged 4.6 yards per play on them. But what about plays where they lined up on the same side of the formation?
There were only three plays of this variety, again a super small sample size, but the Cowboys converted all three of them for first downs. They averaged 6.3 yards per play on them, a clear difference.
Beyond this being a super small sample size, there are a number of factors that could have led to this difference. The takeaway should not be: “I’ve seen what I need to see. Lamb and Pickens should line up on the same side of the formation all of the time!“
But is it fair to ask the question as to whether or not that should happen at a higher rate? Even a slightly higher one? At the very least in the interest of gathering more data?
The Cowboys operate a lot out of 11 personnel and have a third receiver in Ryan Flournoy who is capable of succeeding in his own right. And to the old adage referenced above, if the Lamb and Pickens side of the formation is drawing exorbitant levels of coverage then the other side would surely be all the more exposed, no?
It is an idea worth considering. Surely Brian Schottenheimer has kicked it around in his mind, too.
