Dallas Cowboys WR Cedrick Wilson chose football over baseball, but he can still throw
The toughest decision he’s made in athletics was also probably his best.
Dallas Cowboys receiver Cedrick Wilson had to decide between football and baseball while playing at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas.
It was his sophomore year and Wilson was closing in on 1,000 yards receiving.
“So I was, like, ‘I’m just going to stick with [football],” said Wilson, who was selected by the Cowboys in the sixth round of the 2018 NFL Draft after transferring to Boise State for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
Wilson played shortstop growing up, and was a quarterback until he got to Coffeyville after high school in Memphis. Moving to receiver was Wilson’s idea.
“I got tired of throwing the baseball and the football,” Wilson said.
For Wilson, throwing comes naturally, so he was tasked with pulling off a double-pass last week against the Vikings. The play broke down and Wilson had to scramble, but he still managed to connect with CeeDee Lamb on a 35-yard gain.
“They just call the play and let us work it out. I don’t think they try to control what we do too much, just don’t make a bad play worse,” said Wilson, who also completed a 22-yard pass against the Giants earlier this season and completed two pass attempts in 2020. He’s 4-for-4 in his career, including an 11-yard touchdown pass to Dak Prescott against the Giants in the game Prescott later broke his right ankle.
Wilson isn’t planning on making any jokes to Prescott about who has the better career passer rating.
Nah, I want him to keep throwing me the ball,” said Wilson, who has a career-high 252 yards receiving on 17 catches. He had 17 catches in 16 games a year ago. Wilson said he doesn’t feel any extra pressure to make the “trick plays” work when the call comes in from offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
“I feel like that’s any play. You want to make it whether you’re catching it or throwing it,” he said. “Any play he calls needs to be made so he has the confidence to call another one.”
“He’s just one of those guys when you first step out there and he doesn’t do a lot to just wow you in terms of speed, his size, or anything along those lines,” Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones said on KRLD/105.3 “The Fan.” “but once you get him in a game-like situation, we use the term ‘baller’ or however you want to describe it, he just makes plays. When the ball is coming his way, he figures out a way to catch it.”
Lamb made sure the double-pass was a success against the Vikings.
“I saw him follow me when I decided to roll back the other way. I saw him turn around so I was like, ‘he’s going to be open,’” Wilson said. “I wouldn’t say I was thinking of the scramble drill, but it was definitely just a natural reaction.”
Moore devised the play during a team meeting ahead of the Vikings game, Wilson said. And then they practiced it.
“If we practice it, I’m pretty confident it’s going to come up in the game. So when he called it I wasn’t surprised,” he said.
The Cowboys (6-1) host the Denver Broncos (4-4) at noon Sunday at AT&T Stadium.
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
