Dallas Cowboys star CeeDee Lamb found out he would be the team's No. 1 wide receiver in a surprising way. It was not a meeting with any receivers coach, or a call from head coach Mike McCarthy. He saw it on television while working out.
"I was actually in the gym," the 23-year-old said on the Open Mike podcast. "I saw it. It was on TV. I was working out in Fort Lauderdale in my offseason program, and I saw it on TV, and I was like, 'Wow, that's crazy.' And then my phone started blowing up literally minutes after. It's been a crazy story ever since."
There were inklings that Lamb would get the top spot, but it didn't become reality until Lamb saw that the Cowboys traded Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns -- a move Lamb said caught him "by surprise."
"That's a lot to take in," Lamb said. "It kind of happened so fast, but I feel like that's a situation I'm ready to take on. Honestly, it kind of, in a sense, raised the standard. Obviously, I hold myself to a high standard already, but obviously, at this moment, there's nothing else you can really do but take it on. That's the energy I have.
In March, Lamb spoke about potentially being the team's No. 1 wide receiver, saying he was ready to step up when his name was called. Owner Jerry Jones reportedly called him an upgrade from Cooper, someone Lamb keeps in contact with still.
Lamb has kept many conversations between him and Cooper private, but did give some details on what the two star wide receivers talk about. After Cooper was traded, Lamb reached out to him, saying he wanted to "thank him for everything he had done for me in the first two years."
"Those are real important to me and my direction and trying to find a place in this league where there's a lot of great receivers," Lamb added. "A lot of guys who do a lot of things well in this position. Just giving him his roses for taking me under his wing."
Lamb will now take what he learned from Cooper and apply it to this season.
