Cowboys receivers Lamb and Pickens benched for opening drive vs. Raiders

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Dallas Cowboys wide receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens were benched for the team’s opening drive against the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night.

Instead, the Cowboys started receivers Jalen Tolbert, Ryan Flournoy and KaVontae Turpin.

Dallas coach Brian Schottenheimer said after the Cowboys' 33-16 win that he “made a coach’s decision” and that “there were some things that were missed," but refused to elaborate.

The discipline clearly didn’t add any tension to the Cowboys' sideline or detract from the receiving tandem's energy.

Pickens tied a career high with nine catches and had his third-best yardage total with 144, along with a touchdown, while Lamb finished with five receptions for 66 yards and a TD.

“You look at the energy those guys play with, they literally jump-started the offense when they got back in there,” Schottenheimer said. “They didn’t hang their heads. They didn’t do any of that stuff. And that’s why I love those guys, man.”

The ESPN telecast showed Schottenheimer playfully interacting with his star receiving duo on the bench.

With his second-quarter touchdown, Lamb became the third-fastest Cowboys player to reach 40 touchdown receptions (88 games), behind only Bob Hayes (48) and Dez Bryant (59).

Lamb also passed Bryant (531) for third in receptions in franchise history. The sixth-year player has 536 catches. Three of Lamb’s receptions went for at least 14 yards.

“Just stepping up and playing, playing how we play, man, doing what we do,” Lamb said. “We out there for a reason, and it was fun.”

Asked why he and Pickens were benched for the opening drive, Lamb was tight-lipped.

“I’m not going in depth on that,” Lamb said. “Honestly, I’m not. I’m sorry, I’m not.”

AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens celebrates his touchdown against the Las Vegas Raiders during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb (88) reaches out to make a touchdown catch as Las Vegas Raiders safety Lonnie Johnson Jr. (32) looks on during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Dallas Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson (87) celebrates his touchdown catch against the Las Vegas Raiders with Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens (3) as Cowboys offensive tackle Terence Steele (78) looks on during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, left, celebrates his touchdown against the Las Vegas Raiders with Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Ryan Flournoy runs on the field prior to an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A Utah woman was convicted Monday of aggravated murder after poisoning her husband with fentanyl and self-publishing a children’s book about coping with grief.

Prosecutors say Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail that Eric Richins drank in March 2022 at their home outside the ski town of Park City. They say Richins was $4.5 million in debt and falsely believed that when her husband died, she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million. They also say she was planning a future with another man she was seeing on the side.

Richins stared at the floor and took deep breaths as the judge read the verdict.

The jury deliberated for less than three hours. Afterward, family members on both sides of the case left the courtroom hugging and crying.

She was also convicted of other felony charges, including an attempted murder charge in what authorities alleged was another effort to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him break out in hives and black out. Jurors also found Richins guilty of fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after his death.

Sentencing was scheduled for May 13, the day her husband would have turned 44.

“Honestly I feel like we’re all in shock. It’s been a long time coming,” said Eric Richins' sister, Amy Richin, adding that the family can now focus on honoring her brother and supporting his sons. “So just very happy that we got justice for my brother.”

Richins’ defense attorney said Eric Richins was addicted to painkillers and had asked his wife to procure opioids for him. Kouri Richins, however, told police earlier in a video that her husband had no history of illicit drug use.

“She wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money,” said Summit County prosecutor Brad Bloodworth.

The most serious charge — aggravated murder — carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

What was scheduled to be a five-week trial was cut short last week when Richins waived her right to testify, and her legal team abruptly rested its case without calling any witnesses. Richins’ attorneys said they were confident that prosecutors did not produce enough evidence over the past three weeks to convict her of murder.

“They haven't done their job, and now they want you to make inferences based on paper-thin evidence,” defense attorney Wendy Lewis told the jury on Monday.

Prosecutors said Richins, a real estate agent focused on flipping houses, was deep in debt and planning a future with another man. She had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge, with benefits totaling about $2 million, prosecutors alleged.

They showed the jury text messages between Richins and Robert Josh Grossman, the man with whom she was allegedly having an affair, in which she fantasized about leaving her husband, gaining millions in a divorce and marrying Grossman.

The internet search history from Richins’ phone included “what is a lethal.dose.of.fetanayl (sic),” “luxury prisons for the rich America” and “if someone is poisned (sic) what does it go down on the death certificate as,” a digital forensic analyst testified.

Bloodworth replayed for the jury a clip of Richins’ 911 call from the night of her husband’s death. That’s “not ‘the sound of a wife becoming a widow,’” he said, quoting the defense’s opening statement. “It’s the sound of a wife becoming a black widow.”

Lewis responded that the prosecution “looks at facts one way and sees a witch, but if you look at those facts another way, you see a widow.”

The defense focused on trying to discredit the prosecution's star witness, Carmen Lauber, a housekeeper for the family who claimed to have sold Richins fentanyl on multiple occasions.

Lewis argued Lauber did not deal fentanyl and was motivated to lie for legal protection. Lauber said in early interviews that she never dealt the synthetic opioid, but later said she did after investigators informed her that Eric Richins died of a fentanyl overdose, the defense noted.

Richins had asked Lauber for “the Michael Jackson stuff,” which Bloodworth said likely refers to the drug combination that killed the singer.

“She knows she wants it because it is lethal,” he argued.

The housekeeper was already in a drug court program as an alternative to incarceration on other charges when authorities arrested her in connection with the Richins case, investigators said. She had also violated some conditions of drug court.

The defense showed a video of law enforcement warning Lauber that they could pull her drug court deal and that she could face a lengthy prison sentence.

“Give us the details that will ensure Kouri gets convicted of murder,” a man in the video said.

Lauber was granted immunity for her cooperation in the case. She testified that she felt a need to “step up and take accountability of my part in this.”

Shortly before her arrest in May 2023, Richins self-published the book “Are You with Me?” She promoted it on local TV and radio stations, which prosecutors pointed to in arguing that Richins planned the killing and tried to cover it up.

Summit County Sheriff’s detective Jeff O’Driscoll, the lead investigator on the case, testified that Richins paid a ghostwriting company to write the book for her.

Prosecutors showed the jury excerpts of a letter found in Richins’ jail cell that they said appeared to outline testimony for her mother and brother. In the six-page letter, Richins instructed her brother to tell her former attorney that Eric Richins confided in him about getting fentanyl from Mexico and “gets high every night.”

Defense attorneys said the letter contains a fictional story Richins was working on. They argued that Eric Richins was addicted to painkillers and asked his wife to procure opioids for him.

However, Richins told police on the night of her husband's death that he had no history of illicit drug use, according to body camera footage shown in court.

Associated Press reporters Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.

Defendant Kouri Richins, accused of poisoning her husband in March 2022, listens to closing arguments in Third District Court, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Park City, Utah. (David Jackson/Pool Photo via AP)

Judge Richard Mrazik listens to closing arguments in the Kouri Richins trial where she is accused of poisoning her husband in March 2022, in Third District Court, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Park City, Utah. (David Jackson/Pool Photo via AP)

Defendant Kouri Richins, left, accused of poisoning her husband in March 2022, listens to closing arguments in Third District Court, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Park City, Utah. (David Jackson/Pool Photo via AP)

Summit County Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth presenting the state's final arguments in the trial of Kouri Richins, accused of poisoning her husband in March 2022, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Third District Court in Park City, Utah. (David Jackson/Pool Photo via AP)

Defendant Kouri Richins, left, accused of poisoning her husband in March 2022, listens to closing arguments in Third District Court, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Park City, Utah. (David Jackson/Pool Photo via AP)