Positive takeaways for the Cowboys? CeeDee Lambs ascension, DaRon Blands meteoric rise – The Athletic

When a season ends with a thud the way the Dallas Cowboys did against the Green Bay Packers in the super wild-card round, it washes away a lot of positive things.

Coach Mike McCarthy led the Cowboys to their third consecutive 12-win season, which hadnt happened since the 90s, yet his job status hung in the balance for a few days.

Dak Prescott was in the MVP conversation late in the season. Thats been replaced by: How far is the Dallas QB capable of leading the Cowboys in the postseason?

Micah Parsons set a career high with 14 sacks but faded down the stretch.

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There were some positive takeaways for the Cowboys that dont carry caveats and are things to build upon, though. Lets examine.

Lamb has been on an upward trajectory in most statistical categories since he entered the NFL in 2020. With Amari Coopers departure in 2022, Lamb proved capable of carrying the label of a No. 1 receiver on a good team. However, this season, Lamb showed hes also capable of hovering in the top layer of the league.

Lamb led the NFL this season in targets (181) and receptions (135). He finished second in receiving yards with 1,749, just 50 behind the Miami Dolphins Tyreek Hill. All of this despite the Cowboys not properly utilizing his talents for the first five weeks (except for Week 2); he made a public plea following the Week 5 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. If the Cowboys had turned in a deep playoff run, that moment would be viewed as a turning point for the offense. Lamb earned first-team All-Pro honors for the first time in his career.

The numbers speak for themselves but can often be circumstantial. Justin Jeffersons season totals arent high because he missed seven games. JaMarr Chase had a good year that probably would have been better if Joe Burrow hadnt been lost to injury for almost half the season. The same goes for Lambs numbers if he was as involved as he should have been for the first segment of the season.

CeeDee Lamb: First five games

1

at Giants

4

4

97

19.3

0

2

Jets

13

11

143

13

0

3

at Cardinals

7

4

53

13.3

0

4

Patriots

6

4

36

9

1

5

at 49ers

5

4

49

12.3

0

What made Lamb shoot to the top of the league was how unguardable he consistently was. Lamb strung together one big game after another, including a torrid three-game stretch midway through the season after the bye week. Defenses knew the ball was coming to him, and nobody else on the Cowboys offense warranted attention the way Lamb did. Nothing could be done to stop Lamb, who had a 227-yard performance in Week 16.

CeeDee Lamb: Final 5 games

Wild card

Packers

17

9

110

12.2

0

18

at Commanders

13

13

98

7.5

2

17

Lions

17

13

227

17.5

1

16

at Dolphins

10

6

118

19.7

1

15

at Bills

10

7

53

7.6

0

Lamb doesnt always make highlight-reel catches, but hes always open, and his production isnt just a lot of empty stats. When Lamb is going, so too is Prescott and the Cowboys offense. Hes set to get paid in a big way soon.

After Lamb, nobody was targeted by Prescott more in 2023 than Ferguson (102). The season didnt start glowingly for the Cowboys tight end. He had some drops early and had more than 50 yards in only one of the first seven games.

However, Ferguson had a career-best performance on the road against the Philadelphia Eagles in the eighth game and finished with more than 50 yards in three of the last six games. His drop issues were replaced with some highly contested catches over the middle of the field, particularly on the seam route, where Ferguson and Prescott developed great chemistry and trust. The three-touchdown performance against the Packers was mostly a garbage-time affair but still a positive note for Ferguson to enter the offseason on.

There were questions about who could carry the No. 1 tight end label in Dallas following Dalton Schultzs departure, and Ferguson answered that bell.

Perhaps no position swung as hard from one side to the other from training camp, in terms of how big the question was to how secure the answer proved to be. Aubrey didnt have the strongest training camp, particularly in the early portion in Oxnard, Calif., but he finished the preseason on a high note and carried that into the season.

For the first 16 weeks, Aubrey was perfect 35-for-35 on field goals, which included bad-weather games and long-distance kicks. Aubrey missed a couple in the regular-season finale (one was blocked because of a miscue up front, and another doinked off the goal post). Still, there was never anything close to the uneasy feeling Cowboys fans got accustomed to late last season with Brett Maher, and even with the overall kicking situation in training camp.

Brandon Aubrey: Nearly perfect

20-29

9-9

100

30-39

13-15

86.6

40-49

4-4

100

50-54

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Positive takeaways for the Cowboys? CeeDee Lambs ascension, DaRon Blands meteoric rise - The Athletic