FORT WORTH, Texas — College teammates at Oklahoma who entered the NFL amid projections of greatness, Baker Mayfield and CeeDee Lamb now share another characteristic.
They were each forecast to be an elite No. 1 player, but may just a No. 2.
(Sorry, the bathroom innuendo was unintentional.)
Mayfield was the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns, and predictably, that bombed.
The Browns wanted to get rid of Mayfield so badly they traded for a guy who was under investigation amid dozens of claims of sexual assault, former Houston quarterback Deshaun Watson.
Mayfield is now with the Carolina Panthers trying to salvage his career as a legit starting NFL quarterback, while saving that franchise as well as the status of head coach Matt Rhule.
In the 2020 NFL draft, Lamb tumbled to 17th overall pick where first-year coach Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys grabbed him. They couldn’t believe their luck.
Lamb was projected by most mock draft boards as a top-10 selection. Lamb looked to be a celebrity No. 1 receiver, much like Cincinnati’s Jamar Chase, Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson or Tampa’s Mike Evans.
Maybe Cleveland’s Amari Cooper.
As of today, that’s the stuff of fantasy football, not real football.
Now in his third NFL season, there are concerns with the Cowboys that maybe there was a reason why Lamb dropped to No. 17.
That what we are looking at is the wide receiver version of Baker Mayfield; an ex-Sooner who is a decent pro, but not a great one.
In Lamb’s first game as the Cowboys’ No. 1 receiver in the season opener against Tampa Bay, Lamb looked like ... cough-cough, a lamb. He was targeted 11 times, and caught but two passes. For 29 yards.
Other than the punter, place kicker and linebacker Micah Parsons, no one had a good game against Tampa.
Now with starting quarterback Dak Prescott out for an extended period with an injury to his throwing hand, CeeDee Lamb must be the player the Cowboys believe he is or this will quickly all look much worse.
Despite playing with a variety of quarterbacks in his rookie season, Lamb was outstanding as he made a lot of other teams look stupid for passing on him in the first round of the draft.
Playing next to Cooper, Lamb had 74 catches for 935 yards and five touchdowns.
Last season, again playing next to Cooper, he had 79 catches for 1,102 yards and six touchdowns.
What the Cowboys saw from Lamb to start the 2022 season is merely a continuation of the second half of his 2021 season.
In those last nine games last season, including the playoffs, his production dropped. He was inactive for one game, Week 12 against Las Vegas. In that stretch he averaged four receptions per game with no touchdowns.
In the playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Lamb caught one pass for five yards.
That’s the guy the Cowboys trusted to take over the No. 1 wide receiver position after they traded Cooper to Cleveland in return for what effectively amounts to a stack of coupons.
The Cowboys’ staff just didn’t like Cooper, but used his guaranteed $20 million salary as the reason to dump him.
Whatever his perceived flaws were, he is a brilliant route runner who commanded two defenders on most passing plays. He’s also in the prime years of his career.
His ability to command a double team, or at least an opponent’s best defensive back, opened up a lot of lanes for Lamb.
Lamb is now getting the “Cooper treatment” from other teams.
CeeDee Lamb is not the route runner that Amari Cooper is.
CeeDee Lamb has shown to be a good NFL receiver, but at no point has he shown he can be a No. 1.
As of today, CeeDee Lamb has more in common with his college teammate than either want.
Neither Lamb’s nor Mayfield’s respective scripts are finished.
It’s not as if either is headed to a practice squad, or the street, any time soon but the former first-round draft picks have discovered that all of those yards, touchdowns and wins they accumulated in Norman are a lot harder against a Seahawk than a Jayhawk.
