INDIANAPOLIS – At the NFL Scouting Combine Tuesday, former Oklahoma wide receiver CeeDee Lamb dismissed the notion that there’s a competition between him and Alabama product Jerry Jeudy.
“[With social media], you would assume that we were against each other,” Lamb said. “But like, nah. At the end of the day, we’re still boys.”
Jeudy and Lamb are the consensus top two receivers in the 2020 NFL Draft class. They met each other for the first time this week.
“I said it yesterday with [Jeudy]. There are a lot of great receivers in this class,” Lamb said. “To say we are the headliners of this receiver class, it’s a huge honor. I’m grateful for the opportunity. I’m thanking God every day.”
If you drew a Venn diagram to compare Jeudy and Lamb as prospects, the middle section would be the size of a football field. Both have names that roll of the tongue like band names. Both stand at 6-foot-1. Both weigh between 190 and 200 pounds. Both have elite — but not track-level — speed. They win by virtue of their crisp route-running and soft hands. Both have played in exactly three College Football Playoff games — once as opponents in 2018. Both have caught passes from fellow draft prospect Jalen Hurts, who transferred from Alabama to Oklahoma before the 2019 season.
“They’re all great players,” said Hurts, who also played with another first-round hopeful receiver in Alabama’s Henry Ruggs. “They catch the ball well, get open. They all can run. You get it all out of all of those guys.”
Jeudy and Lamb’s differences as prospects are subtle. Jeudy has dropped more passes. Lamb is a more explosive athlete after the catch but is less refined as a route runner.
“[The area I want to work on most is] creating separation consistently,” Lamb said. “Once I get that down, I feel like I’ll be the receiver I want to be.”
Another difference is how they’ll choose to take in the draft. Jeudy has already decided not to travel to Vegas for the event, opting to spend time with family in Florida instead. Lamb will be making the trip.
“That’ll be my second time in Vegas,” Lamb said.
The duo is reminiscent of A.J. Green and Julio Jones in the 2011 draft. Both were physical specimens who competed against each other in the SEC, just as Jeudy and Lamb did in the 2018 Playoff semifinal game. Green went No. 4 overall to the Bengals. Jones went No. 6 to the Falcons. Both remain with the teams that drafted them and both have been selected to exactly seven Pro Bowls. To this day, they still get compared to one other.
However, there was a major drop-off after Green and Jones in 2011. No other receiver from that class has been selected to multiple Pro Bowls.
With prospects like Ruggs, Clemson’s Tee Higgins, LSU’s Justin Jefferson, USC’s Michael Pittman Jr. and Colorado’s Laviska Shenault rounding out the class, this could go down as one of the greatest crops of receivers to enter a draft in NFL history.
“This receiver class this year is honestly unbelievable in my eyes,” Lamb said. “You can’t really go wrong with anybody. Whoever you draft in the first, second, third or fourth round, it doesn’t matter. Seventh. You’re going to get a great pick.”