Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb on pace to break Hall of Famer Michael Irvin’s single-season records: Would mean ‘a lot’

FRISCO, Texas —  What Dallas Cowboys vast receiver CeeDee Lamb is doing within the 2023 season will also be described with many alternative phrases or words: “locked in” … “in the zone” … “playing on another level.” Another phrase this is now suitable on the midway level of the 2023 NFL season: historical.  

He has over 100 receiving yards in each and every of his ultimate 4 video games, together with surroundings and resetting his profession top in receiving yards in two of the ultimate 3 weeks. He totaled 117 yards on seven catches in a 20-17 Week 6 win on the Los Angeles Chargers, 158 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns on 12 catches towards the Los Angeles Rams in a 43-20 Week 8 win, 191 receiving yards on 11 catches on the Philadelphia Eagles in a 28-23 Week 9 defeat, and 151 receiving yards and a receiving landing on 11 catches in addition to a 14-yard vast receiver opposite dashing landing within the Cowboys’ 49-17 Week 10 house win towards the New York Giants in Week 10. 

“Absolutely,” Lamb mentioned postgame Sunday when requested if he’s lately within the zone. “I’m one of one. I’m a top receiver in this game, and there’s no question about it. Competitors, see y’all again next week.”  

His three-game stretch with 10 or extra catches and 150 or extra receiving yards makes him the primary participant in NFL historical past with the ones numbers in 3 video games in a row. His 617 receiving yards since Week 6 are essentially the most within the NFL, 127 greater than the following closest participant — Detroit Lions vast receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown (490 receiving yards) — and they’re essentially the most in a four-game span through any participant in Cowboys historical past. 

“I really can’t and obviously I shouldn’t because it’s a historical thing that just happened,” Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said Monday when requested if he has noticed any individual play the best way Lamb has right through his record-breaking run. “He’s just amazing. [Against the Giants], he made a big play when they doubled him. If you watch some of the things he’s doing at the line of scrimmage, releasing and things like that, even when he is doubled. We believe that even if a guy is doubled that doesn’t mean he is covered. There is a place you can throw the ball. I always go back to the way he works. What I respect the hell about him is he came out and said ‘hey I want the ball’ and we gave him the ball, they started doubling him and we still gave him the ball. It was really cool for him to do that, and I didn’t know about the record. Every week is different. They said he needed whatever it was, so I’m proud of him.”

CeeDee Lamb since Week 6: NFL ratings

* Played best 4 of a imaginable 5 video games in span as a result of of Week 7 bye
** Most in a four-game span in Cowboys historical past

That efficiency towards New York on Sunday used to be greater than sufficient to earn him NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. The honor is Lamb’s first Player of the Week accolade in his profession, and he’s now the 3rd Cowboys vast receiver within the ultimate 10 seasons to earn the award, becoming a member of every other No. 88 in Dez Bryant (Week 15, 2014) and previous teammates Amari Cooper (Weeks 12 and 14, 2018). 

It’s very significant,” Lamb said Thursday. “Obviously, it way I’m doing one thing right kind and the entire exhausting paintings is paying off, however the activity remains to be now not executed.”

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy coached up multiple Pro Bowl or All-Pro wide receivers — Donald Driver, Greg Jennings, Randall Cobb, Jordy Nelson and Davante Adams — in his 13 seasons as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers, 2006-2018, but never before he has seen the kind of prolific production strung together consecutively the way Lamb has over the last four games. 

“We had a super workforce up there in Green Bay, the ones guys all had their time and their second, however I do not believe I’ve noticed it to this degree,” Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said Monday. “Well clearly it is an NFL list, so I suppose now not. CeeDee is in a novel spot, and the massive factor for us is we now have to stay operating to give him extra alternatives. But extra importantly, the folks round him take merit of and get pleasure from the alternatives he’s developing for them.”

Lamb is just 25 receiving yards away with 975 this season, the third-most in the NFL, from hitting 1,000 yards this season, and if he does so at the Carolina Panthers in Week 11, he would truly be in a unique spot, becoming the second-fastest Cowboy (10 games) to hit 1,000 receiving yards in a season, trailing only Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin’s best season in 1995, the last of Dallas’ three Super Bowl titles in the 1990’s. With another 100-yard performance on Sunday, Lamb would have five consecutive games over the century mark, joining Irvin (seven in a row in 1995) as the only Dallas players to do so. That is certainly on the table against the 1-8 Carolina Panthers since they will be without two starting cornerbacks: Jaycee Horn (hamstring) and C.J. Henderson (concussion), according to the Athletic. 

Lamb’s 68 catches this season are tied for the sixth-most in the league entering Week 11, and if he maintains his current All-Pro pace, he could very well shatter Irvin’s franchise, single-season catches and yards records when it’s all said and done. 

Cowboys single-season receiving records

“So much, so much,” Lamb said when asked Thursday how much he would like to have Irvin’s franchise records. “It’s now not essentially my center of attention, however on the finish of all of it, that is without a doubt one thing that I’m making an attempt to be on most sensible of it. 

“Just embracing it. There’s not really much I can think about right now. Obviously coming up with the next week of a game , and I can’t really reflect on it right now. I can just put my head down the ground, continue to do better, be better, for myself and my team and I always figure out ways of being a better player.”

What way essentially the most to the Cowboys fourth-year vast receiver is this record-breaking run is going on right through a stretch by which Dallas has received 3 of their ultimate 4 video games. 

“Absolutely,” Lamb mentioned when requested if it supposed extra for the reason that manufacturing used to be coming most commonly in wins. “With my explosion and then B Cooks coming along [a season-high 173 yards and a touchdown on nine catches in Week 10] and we’re about to get TP [running back Tony Pollard] going. So just putting all our pieces together, our weapons doing what they got to do. The offense can be great.”

Lamb’s skill to get molten lava sizzling is not new given his ultimate yr at Oklahoma in 2019, he recorded 5 video games with over 135 receiving yards in an eight-game stretch by which the Sooners received seven of 8. 

“Feels a bit identical, but this is not college,” Lamb mentioned. “This is where the big boys at.”

One of the NFL’s best possible corners around the ultimate decade, Stephon Gilmore, the 2019 NFL Defensive Player of the Year and a five-time Pro Bowler, is in his first season as a teammate of Lamb’s. He believes his strikes off of the road scrimmage are some of the most productive within the league these days in addition to what makes Lamb a uniquely tricky duvet. 

“I think his release game [off the line of scrimmage], and once he gets the ball, a lot of YAC [yards after catch],” Gilmore mentioned Thursday when requested what makes Lamb a troublesome protection project. “He wants the ball, and he’ll tell you that. That’s one thing I like about him. He embraces the challenge every week. When the ball comes his way, he can make a play with one hand, two hands, he makes big catches. You get the ball in his hands, he’s hard to bring down…. He just changes it [his release off the line of scrimmage] up. He has kind of like a basketball release a little bit. Sometimes you can’t really get a tell on it, and he does a great job at it.”

No subject how Lamb has freed himself off the road right through this sizzling stretch, he can all the time in finding his long ago to the soccer. Quarterback Dak Prescott tried to heave a go off one foot, fading clear of the throw to keep away from a sack past due towards the Giants, however Lamb used to be in a position to observe the soccer and nonetheless make the catch regardless of Prescott’s best possible efforts to heave the soccer out of bounds. 

“I’ll be honest,” Prescott mentioned with a smile Sunday. “I was throwing it away, but that’s CeeDee Lamb being CeeDee Lamb.”  

Even Lamb’s fellow pass-catchers are in awe about what he’s doing. 

“The one-legged fadeaway was the crazy one for me,” Cowboys second-year tight finish Jake Ferguson mentioned Wednesday. “I remember standing on the sideline on the field and I was like ‘what the hell just happened’? Then I saw CeeDee run back and catch, and I’m like ‘ok, this unbelievable.'” I nonetheless take into accout enjoying Madden with those two [Prescott and Lamb] and now I’m an element of it. It’s lovely surreal for me…. I nonetheless take a seat within the huddle once in a while, and I’m like ‘what the hell goes on?’ I’m an element of this.’ Surreal is in point of fact the one phrase that may come to thoughts at the moment.”

That play may seem irregular or improbable to those who don’t see Lamb operate in practice on a regular basis, but to his teammates, those type of plays from the two-time Pro Bowler are the norm.

“He is continuously getting higher,” Ferguson said. “He makes the ones catches in follow at all times, and it does not wonder us. It does not wonder me in any respect that they arrive out in video games. It’s thrilling. We will also be unhealthy.”