{"id":207049,"date":"2024-12-30T09:30:09","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T14:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=207049"},"modified":"2024-12-29T23:08:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T04:08:15","slug":"cowboys-offense-without-ceedee-lamb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/12\/30\/cowboys-offense-without-ceedee-lamb\/","title":{"rendered":"A Cowboys Offense Without CeeDee Lamb Raises Major Concerns at Wide Receiver"},"content":{"rendered":"

CeeDee Lamb is the clear wide receiver #1 for the Cowboys. It\u2019s why they paid him<\/a>. He\u2019s a cornerstone of the kind of team the Cowboys want to build. However, without a clear WR2 the Eagles-Cowboys game on December 29, 2024, showed gaping holes in the offense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who Will Be the Wide Receiver #2 for the Cowboys Offense in 2025?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Cowboys Offense Struggles to Find Rhythm Without Lamb<\/span><\/h3>\n

With Lamb placed on IR for the final two games of the season<\/a>, it goes without saying that the Cowboys would struggle. The struggles just ran deeper than what they thought would happen. During the first drive of the game, Cooper Rush throws a pick-6 and the Eagles go up. When they get the ball back, the Cowboys regain some momentum offensively by scoring a touchdown. But then, all the air gets sucked out of them. A fumble here, another interception there, and a lack of long drives sealed their fate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides the lack of running the ball with Rico Dowdle<\/a>, the clear problem continues to be that Rush has no one to throw it to. Defensively, the Cowboys managed to shut down A. J. Brown. But this didn\u2019t create any problems for the Eagles. They just went to their WR2, DeVonta Smith, who carried them into an easy victory. Without CeeDee Lamb, who is it that stepped up to the plate? Well. No one.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

No Clear WR2 For Next Season<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Brandin Cooks is the assumed second guy<\/a> behind CeeDee Lamb. He\u2019s been in the league the longest and has shown the ability to be a reliable target. But the Cowboys may not keep him on for next season. It depends on how much he wants. Even if Cooks did stay, there\u2019s still a lot more the Cowboys need out of a #2. Cooks isn\u2019t making splash plays. He\u2019s not breaking tackles and overcoming defenses. If anything were to happen with Lamb in 2025, the hope is to have a guy who can do all those things.<\/span><\/p>\n

Originally, the Cowboys hoped Jonathan Mingo would be the electricity needed<\/a>. Although it\u2019s still too early to say, Mingo hasn\u2019t done much of anything with the ball in his hand. That\u2019s if he can even get it in his hands in the first place. Jalen Tolbert showed a lot of promise initially<\/a>, but simple mistakes continue to plague his play. KaVontae Turpin\u2019s problem is similar<\/a>. Sometimes Turpin makes explosive plays. Often, he\u2019s missing the ball when it\u2019s pretty much perfectly thrown.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there are the tight ends too. Jake Ferguson hasn\u2019t had the best season this year. He continues to make costly mistakes, like his fumble in the game against the Eagles. Ferguson also just isn\u2019t putting up the yards he had last season. At nearly the end of the season, Ferguson hasn\u2019t even scratched over 500 receiving yards, while last year, he had over 900. Luke Schoonmaker has played incredibly well<\/a> but isn\u2019t on the field nearly enough to help the offense. Because of that, there isn\u2019t even an artificial \u201cWR2\u201d in the tight-end room either.<\/span><\/p>\n

CeeDee Lamb Can\u2019t Be the Entire Cowboys Offense<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Although Lamb is necessary for a successful Cowboys offense, he can\u2019t carry the team on his back. As the Cowboys enter into the offseason and trades go underway, it\u2019ll be curious to see whether the Cowboys are active. Although there are other pieces on the team that they know work well, like Micah Parsons, they must consider how to build around their offense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the time, the Cowboys are silent during trade deadlines and offseason scrambles<\/a>, but there\u2019s clearly a large hole in the offense. It was there when Dak Prescott was the QB, and it\u2019s even more present without Lamb on the field. Whether the Cowboys will try to coach up the guys they currently have or go after some new talent in the draft, hopefully, they do something. Because the alternative is more Sunday massacres.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo: [Tim Heitman] – USA Today Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a brutal game against the Eagles, the Cowboys offense shows a big need at wide receiver without CeeDee Lamb on the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5238,"featured_media":207069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,19],"tags":[5801,7422,2679],"class_list":["post-207049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-cowboys","tag-ceedee-lamb","tag-dallas-cowboys-news","tag-wide-receivers"],"modified_by":"Michael Zimmelman","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207049"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207070,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207049\/revisions\/207070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}