The Dallas Cowboys have prepared for the 2024 NFL season without All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb. After catching 135 receptions for 1,749 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2023, an NFL-best, 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 obviously wants Lamb on the field, but he also believes the Cowboys have a wide receiver ready to take on a major role.
Since being traded from South Alabama to Dallas in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft, Jalen Tolbert has caught 24 passes for 268 yards and two touchdowns, with only two of those catches coming in his rookie season.
“The trend is going in the same direction of taking another leap,” Prescott said of Tolbert. “…We had a great conversation about roles, about what individual roles we have and what they mean to the team, and I remember him laying out exactly what he thought his role was. I just told him, ‘Man, your role is to show that you can be a No. 1 receiver, at least a No. 2 receiver.’ And he’s approached this training camp with that intensity and mindset, making those exact types of plays practice after practice.
“And I know he’s given me a lot of confidence. And I know his confidence is growing and obviously the playmakers trust him to keep passing him the ball. So I’m proud of him, but I will tell him when he looks at this, I will tell him to his face, ‘He hasn’t done anything yet.’
“Another player for whom I will not put a ceiling on his potential, because as long as he continues to approach the game the way he has done so far – with the intensity, with the focus and with the expectation of being number 1 – there is no telling how great he can be.”
Prescott said he and Tolbert worked hard this summer to prepare for the 2024 season.
“Every year, the guy I spend the most time with in the offseason has a great year,” Prescott said, “so I don’t want to put any pressure on him, but we’ve spent a lot of time together. …
“I mean, anytime I wanted to throw, he was there. And whether he adjusted his practice schedule elsewhere to make sure he could be there or whether he did that before or after, that speaks to the fact that he’s a professional, that he understands the chemistry that we need, and again, he just has expectations of the type of player he wants to be and the plays he wants to make. He’s doing everything right.”
Tolbert was a three-sport standout at McGill-Toolen University in Mobile 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, earning him the Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Year award.
The Cowboys begin their three-game preseason schedule against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. CDT at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Prescott is not expected to play in the preseason, but Tolbert will look to show he deserves playing time when the regular season begins.
Prescott believes the wide receiver is ready.
“I trust him very, very much,” Prescott said. “I trust him on every route, no matter where, no matter who. When you have a guy like Tolbert, when you have some of those guys and you’ve spent so much time with them, you don’t even look over the ball to see who’s going against them because it really doesn’t matter because whether it’s my footwork, his routes, he understands where to be, the breaks, the timing and the windows. The more consistently you make those plays, the less I care who’s guarding you.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
