FRISCO, Texas – On May 7, the Cowboys accomplished their goal of finding a second wide receiver to pair with CeeDee Lamb by acquiring George Pickens via a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The term "wide receiver two" has been one associated both with Pickens and what Dallas was looking for in general, but Cowboys COO/co-owner Stephen Jones thinks the Cowboys got more than just a second option in Pickens.
"George can be a one [WR]," Jones said in a Sirius XM national radio interview. "He's got that type of talent, he's got unbelievable ball-tracking ability, he's got plenty of juice and he's a fiery competitor. We love that, he plays with an edge, and we think he'd be a good fit for our team."
The Cowboys went through all of their options, including the NFL Draft and exploring other trade opportunities with different teams, before ultimately deciding Pickens was the best move on the table. Additionally, he reminds Jones and the Cowboys of one of their former star wide outs who was a contested catch machine.
"Here you get a guy whose got experience, has had great success in the NFL, obviously a tremendous competitor, he reminds a lot in our building of Dez Bryant in terms of his competitiveness, what he brings to the field, his edge." Jones said.
"[Bryant] just couldn't get enough. And boy, when the lights came on and his cleats hit the turf, he was a different guy. And it feels like George is going to be that way."
Another similarity between Bryant and Pickens is that their competitiveness shows in their emotions, which at times has gotten the best of them in their careers. Jones knows that it's something Pickens will have to get better at, and is confident in his ability to do so.
"He certainly sometimes plays with high emotion and that can, as we all know, when you're playing sports and you're competing and you're playing with a lot of emotion, sometimes you can make a wrong decision here and there." Jones said.
"But, we had that with Dez. Certainly, he knows he wants to continue to get his hands around that, just like Dez worked at it all the time. And we feel like that it's certainly worth what comes with that in terms of what he's doing to continue to get better when he's out there competing week in and week out."
What it came with was giving up a 2026 third round draft pick and a 2027 fifth round pick, in exchange for Pickens and one of Pittsburgh's sixth round picks in 2026. It also came with some work on the backend to look into how Pickens would fit into the Cowboys' locker room and culture that Brian Schottenheimer has emphasized so much, and Jones feels good about what Dallas found.
"All the homework we did, he's well loved by his teammates," Jones said. "They want him on their team. And we felt the same way about Dez. And we just feel like he's gonna bring something here to our organization that we need in terms of an edge and bringing that energy of competition to the field, day in, day out, week in, week out."
Now, the Cowboys are hoping the edge and energy Pickens brings is especially evident on Sundays like it was with Bryant, and can boost the offense to new heights in the first year of the Schottenheimer era.
