SIS Football Rookie Handbook Preview: CeeDee Lamb

Sports Info Solutions (SIS) brings you the second annual edition of The SIS Football Rookie Handbook, with scouting reports and statistical breakdowns on over 280 college football players who are likely to be drafted or signed as rookie free agents in 2020 (a glossary for the below stats can be found here). New features for this year include unique and informative NFL team pages, research deep-dives by the SIS R&D team, and—for the first time ever—the NCAA version of their flagship football statistic, Total Points. 

For our second wide receiver preview, we will look at CeeDee Lamb. A brief explanation of our wide receiver grading scale can be found in our preview of Jerry Jeudy earlier this week.

CeeDee Lamb: WR Rank 2 of 37 | Final Grade: 7.0

Report by Bryce Rossler

One Liner 

Lamb is a well-rounded, physically gifted receiver with great hands and playmaking ability who can win in all phases of the game, but needs to improve his overall route savvy to really take his game to the next level.

Overall 

Lamb aligned primarily as an outside receiver in Lincoln Riley’s Air Raid offense, occasionally reducing inside. He started 39 of 41 games played for the Sooners. Lamb has a solid frame with good height and weight. He possesses good athletic ability, good quickness/change of direction, and very good acceleration/body control/leaping ability.

Pass Game 

In the pass game, Lamb demonstrates good foot-fire and ability to reset the LOS and create 2-way goes vs. press. He exhibits good ability to release off the line to break down cushion against off coverage and flashes good processing to stem routes into the blindspot of corners playing bail technique. He does not consistently stem routes to attack leverage effectively. He understands how to vary pace within his routes. 

He has very good play strength to hold his line when contacted through the route stem and to preserve space to the sideline when working vertically. He does a good job of stacking defenders after winning vertically. He does a good job of not counting steps and gets good depth on his routes. He does well at stepping on defenders’ toes to create upfield movement when breaking horizontally. Lamb demonstrates fluid hips to snap into breaks and good acceleration to explode through them and create separation. He has a tendency to loop the top of his routes, creating unfriendly angles that can lead to undercuts. 

His overall route savvy is just adequate; his ability to work into throwing lanes vs. zone coverage is a work in progress and he fails to adjust on some routes to uncover over the top of curl/flat and hook defenders. His ability to create tilt with his body and leverage his play strength at the breakpoint is inconsistent. Lamb has a good sense for when and how to use his hands to maintain or create separation at both the breakpoint and downfield. He is a very good hands catcher who attacks and snatches the ball. He demonstrates the play strength at the catch point to maintain possession when competing through contact to his body, the ball, or when in a defenseless position. He tracks the ball well and demonstrates great body control/flexibility/catch radius to adjust to passes, using very good footwork to secure catches against the boundary. He is very good at creating YAC and quickly transitions to a runner showing very good elusiveness, contact balance, and open-field vision.

Run Game 

In the run game, he displays good physical toughness and is a very good blocker who demonstrates the positioning, sustainability, and effort to excel.

Last Word 

Lamb projects as a No. 1, starting X-receiver with inside-outside flexibility who you can win because of. He excels with his body control, hands, and catch radius, and needs to improve his route savvy. On 3rd down, he fits best outside, but can slide inside to take advantage of smaller DBs or LBs. He has experience as a punt returner and could excel in that area at the next level.

Critical Factors

Positional Factors

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Advanced

Deep Dive