The Dallas Cowboys are trading for wide receiver George Pickens. Good luck with that Cowboys. You’re going to need it.
Pickens is a world-class talent. Pickens is a world-class headache. Pickens is a speedy, brilliant receiver. Pickens is a pain in the backside that the Pittsburgh Steelers couldn’t solve. If Mike Tomlin couldn’t figure him out, how in the heck will the Cowboys?
This isn’t to say Pickens is a bad guy. He’s no Antonio Brown, that’s for sure. But he has been a problem in Pittsburgh. And, again, a problem the Steelers couldn’t solve. Most of what Pickens has done revolved around him being immature and selfish. These are traits that, well, can be part of the wide receiver genome likely going back to football’s beginning, and Pickens has demonstrated these qualities in abundance.
Pickens’ Steelers teammates had to restrain him on the sideline during games on multiple occasions. He’s had shouting altercations with fans.
He’s been fined multiple times by the NFL for unsportsmanlike conduct penalties including after the Steelers’ game last year against the Cincinnati Bengals. He allegedly arrived late to the Steelers’ Week 17 game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“He’s just got to grow up, man,” Tomlin, the Steelers’ coach, said after the Bengals game. “This is an emotional game, man. These divisional games are big. He’s got a target on his back because he’s George; he understands that. But he’s got to grow up. He’s got to grow up in a hurry.”
“There’s certainly obviously more room for growth there,” Tomlin later added in January at the team’s end-of-season news conference. “I think he covered some ground in 2024, but there’s certainly a heck of a lot more ground to be covered, and we’ll see where it leaves us.”
It leaves them without him.
Former All-Pro receiver Chad Johnson said in February that he’d spoken to Pickens and felt the Steelers wouldn’t have any other issues from Pickens. This was obviously before today’s news of the trade.
“I guarantee you won’t have any problems out of him no more,” Johnson said then. “I done had that conversation with him. I guarantee you, and I don’t want to sit here and talk about what we talked about, but I told him, ‘Listen, that window of opportunity? That (expletive) shrink real fast now.’ It don’t matter how good you are, and I’ll use your line, ‘They’ll tolerate you until they can replace you.'”
Hopefully that Chad Johnson guarantee is transferable.
The Steelers will certainly take the high road in this trade and not throw Pickens under the bus. But if the reported core of the compensation is a third-round pick, that’s not a lot for a player of Pickens’ ability. This trade seems to be about the Steelers running out of patience with Pickens.
On the other side, it’s easy to understand why the Cowboys took this risk. The organization looks around and sees danger everywhere. The Eagles are in position to win multiple Super Bowls. The Commanders are one of the most potent young franchises in all of sports.
“Listen to me,” Johnson said. “I’ve seen his skillset. I know what he can do. Stay with me real quick. If he got the opportunities Ja’Marr Chase got, in the Steelers’ offense, what do you think his numbers would be? … If George Pickens got the opportunity Justin Jefferson got with Minnesota, what you think his numbers would be?”
That’s exactly what the Cowboys are thinking.
Report: Cowboys on verge of acquiring WR George Pickens from Steelers
Dallas is a middle-of-the-pack team (at best). It needed to do something, particularly after a mouse-quiet offseason. But hoooo booyyy is this a potentially problematic move.
There is one hope for the Cowboys and his name is CeeDee Lamb. Lamb is a total pro and the alpha in that locker room (said I’d never use the word “alpha” but here I am). I don’t think Pickens would act around Lamb as he did in Pittsburgh.
I don’t think.
Probably not.
Maybe not.
Good luck, Dallas.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Can Cowboys solve George Pickens riddle after trade with Steelers?
