Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

NFL Draft: Could CeeDee Lamb be Raiders’ future playmaker?

CeeDee

Alonzo Adams / AP

Oklahoma wide receiver CeeDee Lamb runs through drills during Pro Day for NFL football scouts and coaches in Norman, Okla., Wednesday, March 11, 2020.

There are two names atop most prognosticators’ draft boards at the wide receiver position: Alabama stud Jerry Jeudy is one, and Oklahoma playmaker CeeDee Lamb is the other. Both are expected to go in the first half of next month’s NFL draft, and with the Raiders’ need for a No. 1 receiver, Las Vegas is a potential — if not likely — landing spot for one of them.

Jeudy and Lamb are an interesting pair of prospects not just because they are so tightly grouped at the top of the board, but also because their games are so fundamentally different. Jeudy is a technician who explodes in and out of sharp cuts to create massive separation on intermediate routes, and Lamb is his exact opposite.

When it comes to sheer athleticism, Lamb is somewhere in the middle of the pack for this year’s crop of receivers. He ran a 4.50 in the 40-yard dash at the NFL’s scouting combine, which ranked 21st among receivers; he finished 18th in the broad jump and did not run the three-cone shuttle, so his athletic numbers did not stand out.

So how did Lamb produce like he did at Oklahoma, where he racked up 1,158 yards and 11 touchdowns as a sophomore and 1,327 yards and 14 touchdowns last year as a junior?

Lamb’s best ability is one that won’t necessarily show up in combine drills. He’s an electrifying runner in the open field, with the ability to accelerate, decelerate, juke, spin and make multiple defenders miss on his way to a big gain. Oklahoma leveraged that natural talent by throwing him a ton of short passes at or behind the line of scrimmage, at which point Lamb was free to do his thing.

This clip of him turning short catches into long gains could have been minutes long, but you get the idea:

Lamb does run into issues once in a while when he tries to hit home runs, as he did in the second play of that video. When he gets too ambitious, he’ll pass up a 7-yard gain in favor of making three more jump cuts in the hopes that he’ll pop it for a touchdown. But those mistakes were rare in 2019.

Lamb’s other great talent is his ability to go get the deep ball. He doesn’t possess elite speed to run past cornerbacks at will, but he made a lot of plays down the field in 2019 because of his ability to track the ball over his shoulder, get to the spot and beat the defender vertically. He’s also got strong hands at the point of the catch.

On deep routes, Lamb likes to rock defenders to sleep with a slow release, then run past them into the second level. If he’s got a step on his man, he was almost guaranteed to come down with the ball no matter how bad the throw was.

This is a good time to bring up the guy throwing to Lamb last year. Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts put up great stats (69.7 percent, 3,851 yards, 32 TDs, 8 INTs), but when watching the video you see pass after pass that is off-target. Oklahoma receivers had to constantly readjust to the ball in the air, and Lamb was particularly great at it, especially on deep balls:

The on-the-fly adjustment Lamb almost makes on the final play of that video is ridiculous. It should be an easy touchdown, but the throw is 15 yards away from where it should be. Lamb diverts his route, slams on the brakes, comes back, contorts his body and almost hauls it in (Lamb would probably tell you he should have caught it). Get Lamb a decently accurate deep passer and he’ll make big plays down the field.

The big difference between Jeudy and Lamb is in how they play the middle of the field. Jeudy is precise and quick in his cuts. He sets up corners and beats all types of coverage with his technical approach. Lamb is more lax in his route-running. His cuts are not as sharp and he doesn’t possess the kind of short-area suddenness that Jeudy uses so well.

Lamb is good working across the field because he has a natural feel for changing tempo and accelerating into top speed on crossing routes, but he takes longer to change direction than other elite receivers:

Even if Lamb doesn’t clean up his route-running at the next level, he should still be able to operate in the intermediate area due to his ability to make contested catches. He’s got powerful hands and an aggressive catching style. That helps him when defenders reach in. It also shows up on jump balls, as Lamb wins a lot of 50/50 battles with his 6-foot-2, 218-pound frame:

Lamb’s style works for him. He’s super productive on short routes and deep routes, but the in-between stuff could potentially be a problem area for him at the NFL level. Even the short stuff could be an issue if you believe his YAC was enhanced by playing against overmatched defenses in college. But he’s a natural, fluid athlete who made a lot of highlight plays in 2019, most of them through sheer individual effort (and with little help from his quarterback).

If the Raiders find themselves deciding between Jeudy and Lamb on draft day, it might simply come down to their preference in styles.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.

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