Darius Slay’s surprising reaction to news that CeeDee Lamb’s season is over

Darius Slay’s surprising reaction to news that CeeDee Lamb’s season is over originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Darius Slay was sitting at his locker Thursday afternoon when word began to spread that the Cowboys had shut down superstar receiver CeeDee Lamb for the rest of the season.

That will certainly make the Cowboys easier to defend Sunday, but Slay’s immediate reaction wasn’t relief, it was concern for the 25-year-old Lamb, who’s been battling a shoulder injury since Week 9.

“Hopefully, what he’s dealing with, I hope he has a recovery fast, I hope he has a speedy one, a successful one,” Slay said.  I’m just praying for him. I hope it’s nothing severe.”

When told Lamb shouldn’t need surgery, Slay’s face lit up.

“That’s even better to hear that, that’s a blessing,” he said. “I’m glad he doesn’t need to get cut up.”

It says a lot about Slay and why he’s been so good for so long that he was actually disappointed to learn he wouldn’t get to face Lamb on Sunday, when the Cowboys visit the Linc.

Slay is a six-time Pro Bowler and Lamb a three-time Pro Bowler, and Slay always enjoys those elite matchups. He measures himself by how well he plays against guys like Terry McLaurin, Justin Jefferson, Ja’marr Chase and Lamb.

“Yeah of course, hell yeah,” he said. “He’s one of the best in the business so we were looking forward to it but I care more about peoples’ safety than playing against them so I hope he has a speedy recovery, man. Hope he’s doing well.”

Lamb’s 4,302 yards over the last three years are 2nd-most in the NFL, just 41 fewer than Tyreek Hill.

Lamb has 50 catches for 674 yards in nine career games against the Eagles, including a 191-yard game last year – the 2nd-most yards ever at the Linc by an opposing player.

The Eagles held Lamb to 21 yards on six catches in North Texas in October, 4th-fewest yards of his career, but he caught 101 passes for 1,194 yards in 15 games before the Cowboys shut him down for the year.

Slay said the Eagles’ preparation and approach won’t change, even if the Cowboys are missing their best offensive player.

“Yeah, it’s (not) much of a change,” he said. “We just go out there and play ball.”

The Cowboys don’t have anybody else on the roster with 500 yards. Jalen Tolbert, Brandin Cooks, return specialist KaVontae Turpin, Ryan Flournoy and Jonathan Mingo all got between 15 and 46 snaps in the Cowboys’ win over the Bucs on Sunday.

Tolbert has the next-most yards — 482 on 42 catches with six TDs — but most of his production was early in the year. Cooks has had six 1,000-yard seasons but is only 19-for-192 this year. Turpin has 27-for-351, Flournoy 7-for-85 and Mingo has just two catches for 10 yards in six games since the Cowboys acquired him from the Panthers.

The Eagles’ pass defense is coming off a disastrous loss in Washington, allowing three touchdown passes in the game’s final 13 ½ minutes after allowing just eight during the 10-game winning streak.

How will the NFL’s youngest defense respond?

“Great, man,” said Slay, the only starter over 27. “We’re  all grown men in here, you know what I’m saying? So my message to them is basically, ‘Hey man, just get ready for next week.’  We’ve got a great opportunity.

“And the blessing about this is the fact that it didn’t end the season. We didn’t have to go home, we still got a great chance to come out here and (clinch the NFC East and the No. 2 seed) this week. So we’ve still got a good chance of reaching our goal (if we) take care of business at home.

“If we win this game we know what it could do. So that’s what we want to do. And you know, we got to set ourselves up for the future.”

The Eagles still need a win over the Cowboys or Giants or one loss by the Commanders to the Falcons or Cowboys to lock up the NFC East title and No. 2 seed.

“This game is just easy, just flip quick, man,” Slay said. “It’s the NFL, just don’t beat yourself. Minimize the mistakes because the more mistakes you make they’ll come back and bite you so that’s the main thing. It’s just minimizing our mistakes and just go out here and capitalize and just execute.”

A win would give the Eagles their first sweep of the Cowboys since 2011, when Michael Vick beat the Cowboys twice.

“We just got to go out here and execute,” Slay said. “Play fast and make sure we own our (stuff).”

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