CeeDee Lamb knows he needs to clean up one part of his game before the Dallas Cowboys get into the heart of the 2026 season. The Cowboys wide receiver spoke about the drops he had last season and did not shy away from taking responsibility.
Lamb believes the issue was not a lack of ability to catch the football. In his latest podcast appearance on 105.3 The Fan, Lamb said he was getting ahead of himself and thinking about making a big play before he had actually secured the ball. “I just gotta focus up,” Lamb said on 105.3 The Fan. Lamb explained that he has always expected himself to make big plays when the ball comes his way. But after making catch after catch, he said that success can make the fundamentals feel automatic.
“Naturally, it’s caught, it’s caught, it’s caught, it’s caught, right? But then it becomes so normal that you lose track of the fundamentals,” Lamb said.
For Lamb, that means going back to the basics. “Catch, tuck, then make your move. Catch, tuck, then make your move. Catch, tuck, then make your move,” he said. Lamb explained exactly what has happened on his drops.
According to the Cowboys’ star wideout, he has sometimes taken his eyes off the ball just as it arrived because he was already thinking about what he would do after making the catch. “Every single drop has been always taking my eyes off the ball when the ball arrived because I’m automatically thinking I caught it,” No. 88 added.
CeeDee Lamb’s drops became a costly problem for the Cowboys in 2025
Lamb was officially credited with eight dropped passes during the 2025 NFL season, which tied for the sixth most in the league and matched the career high he previously set in 2020 and 2021. Lamb recorded a 6.8% drop rate on 117 targets, making it the second highest drop rate of his career.
The drops were particularly noticeable in two games. In Week 1 against the Philadelphia Eagles, Lamb had one of his roughest performances in that area, with reports crediting him with three to four drops. He had three drops in the final quarter alone, including a critical drop on a fourth down late in the game. Then, in Week 12 against the New York Giants, Lamb was credited with three more drops.
Despite the struggles, Lamb still finished the 2025 season with 75 receptions for 1,077 yards and three touchdowns in 14 games. He has since explained that the drops were largely a focus issue even though his longest catch was 74 yards.
Lamb said he would sometimes start thinking about making a play before actually securing the football, causing him to take his eyes off the ball as it arrived. His solution is to return to the fundamentals and focus on making the catch first before worrying about what comes next.
“As many times as I’m targeted, the ball should never hit the ground, whether it’s PBU, whether it’s a drop, whether it’s a bad ball, regardless of what it is,” Lamb said. “Any time the ball is targeted to me, I consider it a catchable ball.” And we have seen how Lamb has taken this seriously. He was seen practicing with net over his head to avoid any disturbances by sunlight or anything.
That mindset helps explain why Lamb is so critical of himself. He is not satisfied simply with being one of the league’s top receivers and expects himself to finish the play whenever the ball comes his way. However, the drops have not changed how highly Lamb is viewed around the league.
CeeDee Lamb ranks 36th among 1,000 NFL players
Bleacher Report recently released its rankings of the top 1,000 NFL players entering the 2026 season, and Lamb came in at No. 36. In the latest ESPN ranking of Top 10 NFL WR for 2026 season, he was ranked 6th in the league.
That puts him inside the top 40 players in the entire league, an impressive spot considering the size of the list. Lamb also ranked ahead of Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who came in at No. 45. Bleacher Report described Lamb as the “life force” of Dallas’ passing offense and highlighted his ability to make plays in different ways.
“Lamb is a do-it-all playmaker for Dallas,” Bleacher Report wrote. “Whether he’s running NBA crossover routes to fool and lose his defender or making great plays after the catch. Lamb is a great option to have as your offense’s WR1.”
This accreditation and trustworthy weapons in the Cowboys’ offense could prove again that their team is GOTI. GOTI is the nickname Prescott has given to the Cowboys’ Offensive unit which means “Greatest Offense There Is”. The Cowboys OC Klayton Adams views this nickname as the standard of playing football in 2026 and not something you only speak about.
The Cowboys receiver clearly knows what went wrong. Now the challenge is to make sure the lesson carries over when the games matter.
With George Pickens joining Lamb in the Cowboys’ receiving corps, Dallas has another major weapon for Dak Prescott to work with. And if Lamb can eliminate the concentration mistakes while continuing to produce at the level expected of him, the Cowboys will have one of the league’s most dangerous passing attacks.
