CeeDee Lamb Holdout Warning From Orlovsky! (Except He's Wrong)

ESPN's Dan Orlovsky is a football guy who has TV-friendly charisma. But he's no doctor, no researcher and no expert on one key subject, as evidenced by a new claim he just issued in another of his familiar flamings of the Dallas Cowboys.

This time around, he insists that contract dispute with receiver CeeDee Lamb will almost inevitably lead to on-field failure.

"When these premiere athletes miss time in training camp, usually there's something attached to either their performance or health that isn't on par with the expectations," Orlovsky said on Monday morning's edition of "First Take." ... figurative panic button at the ready.

"You say, 'Everything will be fine' .. I disagree!'' Orlovsky squealed. ".. This season could go downhill fast for the Cowboys!''

Whoa. Take a breath, Dan.

First off, Orlovsky's thesis is based on the idea that the Cowboys "won't sign Lamb soon.'' We're willing to bet he's allowed himself to get caught up in owner Jerry Jones' "No Urgency''/"You're Missed!'' silliness , and Dan is therefore probably wrong there.

But let's buy in to his thesis, which boils down to "If a star misses time in camp, he won't achieve his star-level heights in the regular season.''

Scary stuff. But where did Orlovsky come up with this? Where is even a small sample size of proof?

Let's counter his "analysis'' with our 35 years on the Cowboys beat. Off the top of our heads, we can come up with four big-time Cowboys who staged camp holdouts. We covered each of them. They went something like this ...

1992 - Michael Irvin: This is our great "El Paso'' story, when Irvin writes a contract request on a napkin and slides it across the desk to Jones, who replies - thinking he's speaking Spanish for "I'll pass'' ...

El Paso.

Irvin spent that summer working out as vigorously as ever; I went to his house one night to find him running 10 p.m. block-long wind sprints forward, and then backward - while wearing a 30-pound weighted military vest.

Jones eventually found a way. The deal got done on the Wednesday(!) before Week 1.

Irvin caught nine passes for 162 yards and scored a touchdown. In Week 3 against the Cardinals, he caught eight passes for 210 yards and three TDs.

Dallas won all three of those games. Irvin ended the season as an All-Pro ... and he keyed a Cowboys win in the Super Bowl.

Dan Orlovsky, based not on speculative guessing but rather, on Cowboys lore, is 0 of 1.

1993 - Emmitt Smith: In the spring time, Smith and his reps told me they wanted "quarterback money'' for a new salary. It was considered outrageous.

So he sat out. Waiting. Missing. The entirety of training camp. Jones' Cowboys forged on, the defending Super Bowl champs ... and started the season 0-2, with Charles Haley throwing his helmet through the sheet-rocked locker room wall punctuating the need for change.

Shortly thereafter, Smith got signed and took the field for Week 3 on the way to an NFL rushing title, an All-Pro nod, an AP MVP win and yes, another Jimmy Johnson-coached Cowboys triumph in a second straight Super Bowl.

"The Orlovsky Theory'' is 0 for 2.

2019 - Ezekiel Elliott: "Zeke Who?'' This holdout lasted all the way to early September, before Elliott agreed to a monster $90 million deal. He took the field Elliott and finished the 2019 season with 301 carries for 1,357 yards and 12 touchdowns to go along with 54 receptions for 420 yards and two touchdowns.

He was ranked as the 24th-best player in the NFL Top 10 and made another Pro Bowl.

Dan is 0 for 3.

2023 - Zack Martin: Just last season, future Hall of Fame offensive lineman Zack Martin took the Joneses aback by staying away from training camp until his contract was reworked.

Jerry Jones said a lot of things in public about how Dallas simply couldn't bend here ... and then Dallas bent.

On Aug. 14 - several weeks into camp and right about where we now are on the Lamb calendar - Martin agreed to an extension that bumped his pay more than $8 million per year.

How did he suffer? By making his ninth Pro Bowl and his seventh All-Pro First Team. And someday, he'll joined the aforementioned Irvin, Emmitt, Johnson, Haley and Jones in the Hall of Fame.

Orlovsky is 0 for 4.

Related: Rumor: Cowboys Offer CeeDee 2nd-Biggest WR Contract Ever

What Orlovsky is doing here is good theater, and there is certainly a chance that he might blind-squirrel his way to an acorn. But there is absolutely nothing in Cowboys history that suggests a disastrous CeeDee Lamb collapse during the length of the 2024 season, going all the way to January, because of an absence in August.