Ceedee
Lamb.
Ceedee
Lamb.
Oklahoma· 6'2"· 198 lb· 4.50s 40
"The most dangerous football player in this receiver class once the ball is in the air or in his hands — CeeDee Lamb turned routine completions into 40-yard plays for three straight years at Oklahoma."Pre-draft read
Lamb wins at the catch point and after it. He plucks the ball away from his frame with strong hands, high-points throws over smaller corners and almost never lets a defender play through him. Oklahoma threw him back-shoulder fades, deep overs and screens with equal confidence because the outcome was usually the same.
What separates him is what happens next. He breaks the first tackle, spins out of the second and finds grass in traffic, averaging 19.0 yards per catch for his college career. He is not a burner and will not run away from NFL corners in a straight line, and his Oklahoma route tree leaned on verticals and manufactured touches. Against press he can be slowed when he does not use his hands.
Play-caller-driven passing game that moves him around the formation and manufactures touches in space
Year 1 starting slot and movement receiver; ceiling is a first-team All-Pro No. 1 target with 1,700-yard seasons
A rigid X-receiver role that parks him on the boundary against press and asks him to win purely with vertical speed
Targets in space are worth more than targets downfield with him — design touches, do not just throw deep
Oklahoma WR CeeDee Lamb 2019 Highlights
Junior-season reel of the catch-point wins and yards after catch.
Best WR in the Big XII || Oklahoma WR CeeDee Lamb 2019 Highlights
Full 2019 cut-up including his 21.4-yard average per catch.
CeeDee Lamb (Oklahoma, WR) 2020 NFL Combine Highlights
Combine workout that framed the long-speed debate.
Lamb is the most productive receiver in a deep class and the one with the clearest translatable superpower: he is impossible to tackle in space and nearly impossible to outmuscle at the catch point. Three seasons in Lincoln Riley's offense produced numbers that hold up against anyone in this group.
He played 41 games for Oklahoma and finished with 173 catches for 3,292 yards and 32 touchdowns, a career average of 19.0 yards per reception. As a freshman he caught 46 passes for 807 yards and seven scores. He followed with 65 for 1,158 and 11 as a sophomore, then delivered a consensus All-America junior season of 62 catches for 1,327 yards and 14 touchdowns at 21.4 yards a catch, leading the Big 12 in both average and receiving scores while adding nine carries for 20 yards and another touchdown.
The questions are about long speed and route polish. He is a build-up runner rather than an instant separator, and Oklahoma's scheme created a lot of his clean releases. Evaluators who prioritized route craft ranked Jerry Jeudy first; those who prioritized ball skills and yards after catch had Lamb at the top of the board. Dallas, picking seventeenth, did not expect him to be there and did not hesitate.
- 01
Yards after catch
Breaks the first tackle routinely and turns short throws into explosive gains, averaging 19.0 yards per college reception.
- 02
Contested-catch ability
Plucks the ball away from his frame and high-points throws over defensive backs in tight coverage downfield.
- 03
Elite college production
173 catches for 3,292 yards and 32 touchdowns in three seasons, with a consensus All-America junior year.
- 04
Body control in the air
Adjusts to poorly placed throws and completes catches while falling, along the sideline or through contact.
- 05
Ball-carrier instincts
Sees angles like a running back once he turns upfield, making defenders miss in a phone booth.
- 01
Long speed
A build-up runner rather than a true burner, so NFL corners with recovery speed can stay attached down the sideline.
- 02
Route tree breadth
Oklahoma leaned on verticals, overs and manufactured touches, leaving intermediate technique less developed.
- 03
Press releases
Can be slowed at the line when he does not use his hands, particularly against physical boundary corners.
- 04
Scheme-created space
Much of his production came from an offense designed to isolate him against overmatched Big 12 defenders.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.50sp50
- Vertical
- 34.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 124inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 11repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Oklahoma | 14 | 46 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Oklahoma | 14 | 65 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Oklahoma | 13 | 62 | 20 | 1 |
| Career | — | 41 | 173 | 20 | 1 |
Parsed from Sports-Reference CFB career page via Firecrawl.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Reliable high-volume receiver who wins with hands and separation quickness rather than straight-line speed.
High-volume target monster who sets reception records and anchors an offense as an every-down No. 1.
Elusive yards-after-catch specialist who produces well without becoming a true offensive centerpiece.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Lamb has been exactly what the tape promised and then some. He caught 74 passes for 935 yards as a rookie, a Cowboys rookie record for receptions, and has not slowed since. His 2023 season was one of the great receiving years in franchise history: 135 catches for 1,749 yards and 12 touchdowns, first-team All-Pro, second in the NFL in receiving yards. He followed with 101 catches for 1,194 yards in 15 games in 2024 and 75 for 1,077 in 14 games in 2025 despite missing time.
Through two games of 2026 he already has 13 catches for 197 yards and three touchdowns, including a 153-yard, two-score afternoon against Washington in Week 2. Seven seasons in the career line reads 97 games, 584 receptions, 7,613 yards and 44 receiving touchdowns, plus five Pro Bowls and a first-team All-Pro nod. He signed a four-year extension with Dallas in August 2024 that made him one of the highest-paid receivers in football. Sixteen teams passed on him, including two that took receivers ahead of him. He is the best player from this draft class not named Justin Jefferson.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2020 NFL draft player selections table.