Despite shoulder injury, Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb continues to bring it

ARLINGTON — CeeDee Lamb stood in front of a crowd of reporters and smiled.

It hit screaming in pain.

The Cowboys wide receiver is the best offensive presence on this team. He’s probably the first or second-best player back on a team struggling through injuries in a season that has been pressured to work out positioning and discussions about the future.

Lamb’s future is secure, a result of signing a four-year, $136 million contract extension this summer. The present is all that matters to him now. He is playing through a painful right AC joint sprain.

Everyone knows it. He can’t hide from it. When defenders tackle him, it’s not the physical contact that bothers him, it’s the landing on the ground that causes more pain.

“My shoulder is out of whack bro,” Lamb said after the Cowboys’ 26-24 win Sunday night over Tampa Bay. “I’m not even going to lie to you. I’m just out there fighting and doing what I do. Yeah, bro, it’s not fun.”

Lamb caught seven passes for 105 yards on eight targets in the win. Lamb’s ability to bring defenders his way is something he does as well as anyone at his position. He drew two defenders, allowing Jalen Tolbert to sneak past a defender and catch a touchdown pass Sunday.

Lamb also drew a team call because when you show good footwork it creates space, making defenders nervous about what you can do if you catch the ball.

On the season, Lamb has 101 catches, the third time in his career he has reached that level. He entered Sunday’s game needing just 32 scrimmage yards to pass Jerry Rice for the fourth-most scrimmage yards by a wide receiver through the first five seasons of a career.

He can check that box.

Lamb doesn’t play for the records, but when you’re a talented player the numbers go up and the records go down.

It would be easy for Lamb to sit back and just watch the rest of this 2024 season finish without him.

He can’t do that.

“It’s tough,” he said. “It’s like I’m fighting a personal battle and then a team battle. Obviously, for me, (I’m) trying to win everything. You can’t win them all, but I know what I can do is make an impact when I’m out there and any opportunity I get when I’m out there, they better watch or else.”

It is interesting to hear the narrative that Lamb is not tough enough.

Since the NFL went to 17-game seasons in 2021, Lamb has missed just one game. A concussion cost him a game against Las Vegas.

He has been here every week.

Every week.

“I feel like I’m now way past the narrative of the money situation,” he said. “Obviously I do it for the money, but it’s a lot more than that. This is my way of life. This is what I wanted to do growing up. It’s all I wanted to do growing up. So I’m right now, I’m living my dream. So for anyone who thinks I’m playing for money, it’s kind of crazy.”

This cowboy season was lost weeks ago.

If you don’t understand why some players continue to fight through injuries, it’s because of the culture coach Mike McCarthy and the players themselves have.

An NFL locker room in December is like a mini urgent care facility with an overcrowded waiting room.

These players aren’t nursing injuries to miss games, they’re hitting through them.

No one wants to miss games unless surgery is necessary.

Lamb said he won’t need surgery to repair his shoulder. Rest, and plenty of it, will give him the comfort he seeks.

That won’t happen until two weeks from now, when the Cowboys end their season.

“I mean CeeDee is a bitch through and through,” guard Tyler Smith said. “He shows it every week, the way he attacks, the way he plays the game. It makes me play harder and he’s a real leader.”

One of the best players left is Lamb. He believes it is not only his duty to serve his teammates, but to respect the sport. It is sometimes difficult to deal with because of the pain and suffering it causes.

But here Lamb plays. Fighting.

“He’s definitely very tough out there,” running back Rico Dowdle said. “It just shows his character and how he said he’d do whatever he can for the team and he’s out there playing and playing through it. One of a kind guy, a really special player.”

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