The Dallas Cowboys have been preparing for the 2024 NFL season without All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb. After posting 1,749 yards and 12 touchdowns on an NFL-best 135 receptions in 2023, Lamb is looking for a new contract. He did not participate in the Cowboys’ offseason program and has not reported to training camp.
Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott wants Lamb on the field, of course, but he also thinks the Cowboys have a wide receiver ready to step into a starring role.
Since joining Dallas from South Alabama in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft, Jalen Tolbert has 24 receptions for 268 yards and two touchdowns, with only two of those catches in his rookie season.
“The trend’s in the same direction to make another jump,” Prescott said of Tolbert. “… We had a great conversation about roles, about what individual roles that we have and what they mean to the team, and I remember he particularly laid out what he thinks his role was. I just told him, ‘Man, your role is to go show that you can be a No. 1 receiver, at minimum a No. 2 receiver.’ And he’s approached this camp with that intensity, with that mindset, and he’s made exactly those kinds of plays practice after practice.
“And I know he’s given me tons of confidence. And him, I know his confidence is growing, and, obviously, the play-callers have confidence in him to keep feeding him the ball. And so I’m proud of him, but I’ll tell him, I’m sure if he watches this and I’ll tell him to his face: ‘He hasn’t done anything yet.’
“Another guy that I’m not going to put a ceiling on what his potential could be because as long as he continues to approach the game the way he has -- with the intensity, with the focus, and with the expectation to be a No. 1 guy – no telling how great he can be.”
Prescott said he and Tolbert worked extensively together this summer to prepare for the 2024 season.
“Every year, the guy who I feel like I spend the most time with in the offseason goes and has a huge year,” Prescott said, “so I don’t want to put that pressure on him, but we spent a lot of time together. …
“I mean anytime that I wanted to throw, he was there, and if whether that was him adjusting his workout schedule somewhere else to make sure that he could be there and then going to get that done before or after, a credit to him being a pro, him understanding the chemistry that we need to have, and once again, just his expectations of the type of player that he wants to be and the plays that he wants to make. He’s doing everything the right way.”
Tolbert was a three-sport standout at Mobile’s McGill-Toolen and helped the Yellow Jackets win the AHSAA Class 7A football championship in 2015.
Tolbert caught 82 passes for 1,474 yards and eight touchdowns at South Alabama in 2021, when he received the Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Year Award.
The Cowboys kick off their three-game preseason schedule against the Los Angeles Rams at 3:30 p.m. CDT Sunday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Prescott is not expected to play in the preseason, but Tolbert will be seeking to show he deserves playing time when the regular season arrives.
Prescott thinks the wide receiver is ready.
“My trust is super, super high in him,” Prescott said. “I trust him with any route wherever it is against whoever. When you have a guy like Tolbert, when you have some of these guys and you’ve spent that time, you don’t really even look across the ball to see who’s lined up against them because it really doesn’t matter because whether it’s my footwork, his routes, he understands where he needs to be, the breaking points, the timing and the windows. As you consistently make those plays, the less I care who’s guarding you.”
