OXNARD, Calif. — New Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer desires to establish a physical, hardworking culture in his first season in charge in 2025, but that doesn’t mean handling preseason playtime like his late father Marty.
The elder Schottenheimer, whose 200 coaching wins in 21 seasons as an NFL head coach rank as the eighth-most in NFL history, had a philosophy where he played every one of his players in the preseason, including Pro Football Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Thomlinson as the head coach of the Chargers. The younger Schottenheimer won’t be following in his father’s footsteps when it comes to that preseason procedure.
“There’s a handful of guys that won’t play, but there’s really, when you look at it, you have a target set of numbers that you want to get throughout the preseason,” Schottenheimer said on Friday. “So maybe the number is 40 for a player. So maybe that’s 10 to 15 plays tomorrow, another 25 or whatever against Baltimore and then you decide the third game. Our players are aware of kind of where they are going in this game.”
Obviously, quarterback Dak Prescott (torn hamstring) and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb (AC joint shoulder injury) will be in the group that won’t play given their importance to the Cowboys and the injuries they suffered last season. Both are healthy at this point in training camp, and Lamb actually loves the preseason because of his ability to pour into his younger teammates.
“That’s what this is for. I actually love the preseason just to kind of give them a spitting image of what we go through and putting themselves into the game,” Lamb said after practice on Friday. “Obviously, the brain works differently when the lights are on, obviously. Then, you get one play in the game for X amount of yards. So, it’s a lot on the mind, a lot on the body and then obviously physically you just got to go out there and be you. Be free. Do what you do, what got you here. That’s be blessed to play the game that you love.”
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As a rookie, Lamb had five-time Pro Bowler Amari Cooper as the big dawg in the wide receiver room. The past two seasons, he had 11-year veteran Brandin Cooks as the leader in Dallas’ wide receiver room. Now, at the age of 26 and readying to embark on his sixth NFL season, Lamb is THE leader at his position for the first time in his Cowboys tenure. Another thing he enjoys about the preseason is he is able to watch the plays as they happen live from the sideline, which allows him to have a greater analytical ability than just watching it back on the iPad.
“I feel like that’s [during preseason games] the best time to learn and the best time to teach for me, on the outside looking in,” Lamb said. “I’m still learning and then from the things that I see that they could have done wrong, right or better — whatever the case may be. I just feel like I’m going to hop on that. I feel like this preseason is a lot different than any of my other ones obviously because I’m in a different chair now. I’m seeing it from a different lens, and I’m really critiquing these guys. I know they want to be better, so we’re giving them that.”
There’s just one wide receiver on the current Dallas roster who Lamb truly trusts for feedback, and it’s new Cowboys receiver George Pickens. Pickens, who is 24-years-old and entering his fourth NFL season in 2025, produced eye-popping numbers as a Pittsburgh Steeler, averaging 16.7 yards per reception across the last two seasons, a figure that leads the entire league among 61 players with at least 110 catches since 2023.
“We embrace every opportunity together with each other, learning from each other,” Lamb said. “If I got a question for him, he answers and vice versa. We just see different things like different POVs. We can’t watch each other. Like I can’t watch myself, he can’t watch himself. So I feel like my input is just as valuable as his to me. Just learning and watching film, man, and just being better every day. That’s our mantra for each other.”
As for Lamb’s rapport with Prescott, it’s back on track after the two missed time both last offseason when Lamb was in holdout and after Prescott missed the second half of 2024 with his torn hamstring.
“Man, it feels good,” Lamb said. “All offseason again together, spending time together. Weeks, days, sometimes a couple weeks. So just getting back in the groove of things, understanding all the things we missed out on. I feel like it’s a lot of lost time, but we’re right back on track where we need to be.”
Lamb came to that revelation after Tuesday’s joint practice with the Los Angeles Rams and watching the film back not once, not twice but eight times. Offensively as a whole though, the All-Pro sees plenty of room for improvement.
“It [the work against the Rams] was amazing. It exposed us a lot,” Lamb said. “I feel like it showed us a lot of where we are up to this point. It was definitely a great learning experience for myself to see. I’m pretty sure for others too just to see how we measure up against other people. … I will say that it was a lot of learning that we could have done at the receiver position, at the o-line position. Obviously I’m not the OC, so I can only critique my room, but for us as an offensive whole, we got a lot of work to do. In order for us to get to where we want to be, we got to put the work in.”
Gearing up for Week 1 against the Super Bowl champs
The next time Lamb does take the field against an opposing defense will be in Week 1 at the Super Bowl LIX champion Philadelphia Eagles to open the NFL season on Sept. 4. He’s already gotten a head start on his preparations after watching some of the Eagles’ starters suit up Thursday night in their preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
“Attention is always on Philly, it’s always on Philly” Lamb said. “Whenever you get an opportunity or downtime, go check out the tape. Those guys had a little preseason last night, and a couple of those starters played.”
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