FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Klayton Adams said Thursday that receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens are “total opposites,” three days before Dallas opens the season against the New York Giants.
Kickoff at MetLife Stadium is Sunday at 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC. Adams took over the offense in 2025, after Brian Schottenheimer was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach. Dallas acquired Pickens from the Pittsburgh Steelers that same offseason.
The two receivers do not think about things the same way or respond to things the same way, Adams said.
“I think C.D. probably personality-wise is a little bit more like what I would expect a receiver, just in terms of the way that he operates day to day,” Adams said. “George, you just don’t always know exactly what you’re going to get. A little bit more unpredictable, but both awesome in their own ways. Just a different one.”
Pickens led the Cowboys with 93 catches, 1,429 yards, and nine touchdowns in 2025. All three were career highs. He made his first Pro Bowl and was named a second-team All-Pro.
Lamb caught 75 passes for 1,077 yards and three touchdowns in 14 games. He did not play in Weeks 4 through 6 and made his fifth straight Pro Bowl. Between them, the two caught 168 passes for 2,506 yards. Dallas finished 7-9-1 and missed the playoffs for the second straight season.
George Pickens Plays The 2026 Season On The Franchise Tag
On Feb. 27, the Cowboys placed the franchise tag on Pickens, which guarantees him $27.3 million for 2026 once signed, The Associated Press reported. Dallas later called off talks on a long-term deal. Pickens signed the one-year tender the week after the draft, according to NFL.com.
Pickens was a second-round pick out of Georgia in 2022. He earned $6.8 million on his four-year rookie contract, according to the AP.
Lamb is in the second year of a four-year, $136 million extension. He held out through the offseason program and training camp in 2024 and signed the deal about two weeks before the opener. His $34 million average ranked third among NFL receivers in February, the AP reported.
Two No. 1 receivers on the same team usually raise the question of who is going to get more balls, Adams said.
“Love both guys to death, but could not really be more opposite,” Adams explained. “Those guys are total opposites. And that probably feeds into their relationship, is just that they don’t necessarily think about things the same way all the time or respond to things the same way all the time.
“It’s fun to watch, and it’s unique because they’re really not jealous of each other,” Adams continued. “I think that’s probably something that you would think of when you get kind of two number ones on the same team, is who’s going to be getting more balls and be upset about it. Those guys never are that way. They’re fired up for each other. I think they truly want to win.”
CeeDee Lamb On Sharing The Ball With George Pickens
A lot of people love to compete and compare, Lamb said, and he does not think that happens inside the Cowboys’ receiver room.
“I feel like we have a great understanding,” Lamb said. “If not us, then who? I feel like we have that type of mindset as far as getting open, creating space for us. And when we see the ball, we make the play we expected. And if not, we know the ball is going to the best place possible.
“So just believing in one another, I feel like having that type of mindset, you will be very successful,” Lamb added. “A lot of people love to compete and compare, and I don’t think we do that here. We don’t. We just want to win together. That’s essentially the end goal. A lot of people want to do X, Y, and Z, try to find flaws, but it’s cool.”
When one of them is feeling down, the other is there to pick him up, Lamb said.
“I feel like my strengths, I wouldn’t say his weaknesses, but it may not be his strengths,” Lamb explained. “And his strengths may not be my strengths. And I feel like we compel well off each other. And at that moment, like, if he feeling down, I’m here to pick him up and vice versa. We do that well. We complement each other.”
Moving a receiver to a different part of the progression lets the Cowboys get the ball to someone else faster when they expect a defense to roll coverage toward him, Adams said. Early in the season, with a new Giants staff, Dallas will have to coach some of that on game day.
“I feel like he’s done a good job, when we ask him to do some of those things, of having understanding of it,” Adams said of Pickens. “And the other part of it is when we do move him around, it just can’t be the same route all the time. And so he’s definitely grown in that way and embraced the opportunity to do some of those things.”
In Week 2 last season, Lamb had nine catches for 112 yards in a 40-37 win over the Giants at AT&T Stadium. The Giants won the teams’ last meeting, 34-17, at MetLife on Jan. 4.
