Who besides CeeDee Lamb is going to catch passes for the Cowboys?

New York Times

03-05-2025

With the 2025 NFL Draft now behind us, all 32 teams have made most of their personnel moves ahead of the new season — but that doesn't mean every roster need has been filled. For instance, take a look at the Cowboys' roster: Beyond CeeDee Lamb, Dallas doesn't have another reliable wide receiver on the roster.
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On the latest episode of 'The Athletic Football Show,' Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen discussed which pass catchers could step up for the Cowboys in 2025. Watch the full discussion below.
A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on YouTube below or in 'The Athletic Football Show' feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Robert: We thought the Dallas Cowboys might draft a receiver 12th overall if one was on the board, but they didn't draft a receiver at all, and didn't address it in free agency either. Who is catching passes for the Cowboys?
Derrik: I was certain they would draft a receiver at some point, and I think they really wanted Tetairoa McMillan. There was a lot of reporting and talk about it, so that's clearly who they wanted to get at 12. But when he wasn't there, they did the Cowboys thing of, 'All right, we don't necessarily know what we want, so let's just throw another pick at the offensive line and that will probably be fine.' They did lose Zack Martin this offseason, so I don't think reloading there was a bad strategy. But they didn't really attack pass catchers at all, it just wasn't something they cared about. They did take a running back in Jaydon Blue, who is probably going to help them out a little bit in the backfield. But they didn't take any starters at either tight end or receiver who are going to help them. They're still going into this season with CeeDee Lamb, which is fantastic because obviously he's one of the most explosive players in the league. But they're still waiting for the Jalen Tolbert breakout, and it's the final year of his contract, so at this point it's probably not going to happen. If it was going to happen, we would have seen it by now. Last year, midway through the season, they traded for Jonathan Mingo. But when you think about it, a Carolina Panthers team, which didn't have that much going forward at the pass-catcher room, was willing to trade away Mingo even though it was a different coaching staff that drafted him. Behind that, they've got Ryan Flournoy who they drafted in the sixth round last year. As a wide receiver four, that's a cool idea. But when you don't have a good wide receiver two or three, that's not as fun of an idea. We knew outside of CeeDee Lamb they didn't have many options, both in terms of having good floor options and good ceiling options. And they didn't take anyone in the draft to make me feel better about it, so it's still a spooky pass-catching group to me.
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Robert: We thought they might take a receiver at 12, and I think everyone assumed they would try to draft a running back on Day 2 because the only moves they'd made at running back were one-year contracts for Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders. It sounds like Williams, based on the way that things have unraveled here, will be the starting running back unless it's Jaydon Blue. But I'm not sure how good you feel about that.
Derrik: I don't think Blue can be at his size, that's also the issue too.
Robert: Yeah, that's just not what he is. I don't know how that room comes together, so a little bit surprising based on what we thought they might have done. Then with the receiver group, they didn't do anything, they didn't draft a receiver at all. My assumption is they're looking at this with the mindset of, 'Jonathan Mingo is the offseason addition we made at receiver.' All right, we'll see how it goes…
Derrik: I don't love that…
Robert: I don't know how I feel about that either (laughs). My concern here is that we're going to get to Week 6 again, and my response to all of this is going to be, 'I think KaVontae Turpin should be getting more snaps.' Which is the exact same thing we were saying last year. Just playing it out, doesn't that seem to be the place we're going to land again with the lack of juice the rest of this group is bringing to the table?
Derrik: It's either that, or does Parris Campbell have anything left? Which, again, you're asking a similar type of bad question in terms of trying to find the explosiveness. The only thing I can assume is that once Tetairoa McMillan was gone, maybe they just didn't love Matthew Golden or any of the other receivers there, and that's fine. You take Tyler Booker, and the idea is, 'Maybe Tyler Guyton and Cooper Beebe take another step. And even though Booker is not going to be as good as Zack Martin, if he can at least be a good rookie, then maybe the offensive line will be better, and we can run the ball and leverage that into better offense.' But it feels like you're asking a lot from Guyton, who was really up and down last year. You're also asking a lot of Booker, who is replacing one of the best guards of the last decade. Again, Booker might be good, but that's asking a lot. Then I still don't love what they have at running back. So even if your idea is, 'The offensive line and run game will allow the passing game to be better,' you still need around four things to go right for that to even be true.
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(Photo of Jonathan Mingo: Cooper Neill / Getty Images)