On Thursday night, Cowboys receiver George Pickens dusted off some of the concerns that undermined much of his three years in Pittsburgh. But even if those on the outside question Pickens’s effort against the Lions, the guy who signs his paychecks does not.
“One of the things that you got to appreciate about George Pickens is his intensity for the competition,” Cowboys owner/G.M. Jerry Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com. “Now, he is a big-time competitor. When it comes to competing and when it comes to loving the game, I emphasize that point right there, loving the game, then I give him A-pluses.”
And so Jones continues to say things that will make it even more expensive to keep Pickens over the long haul.
“I like what George Pickens has done all year,” Jones said. “Just so that I’m real clear about it, I don’t have the concern that [others] debate about what George Pickens did or didn’t do in that game. I don’t have that kind of concern about him as far as his competing and helping us win football games on the field, at all.”
Here’s the quote from Jones that Pickens’s agent, David Mulugheta, should print out (if anyone still has printers) and laminate (if anyone still has laminating machines): “Pickens brings everything to the table. He brings enough pluses to the table to frankly live with what’s going on, this type of criticism. The criticism in my mind is, is he a competitor, and when he gets out there, can he come down with the ball? Does he compete when he’s out there? A-triple-plus.”
Congratulations, Jerry. You’re successfully painting yourself into a corner that will require $40 million per year in new money to escape.
And, once that happens, Pickens will have the upper hand in the relationship. Some would question whether he can be trusted with that kind of power. Jones apparently does not.
Fresh from a record-setting pair of Thanksgiving games, it seemed possible that Thursday’s high stakes Cowboys-Lions game would set the audience record for streaming.
It didn’t.
The good news is that the 19.39 million average viewership set a record for Thursday night streaming on Prime Video. Still, they’ve got to be disappointed that it didn’t get to 20 million.
The Cowboys are the Cowboys, and the Lions have emerged as a national draw over the past three seasons.
The next opportunity to get to 20 million comes in nine days, when the 10-3 Seahawks host the 10-3 Rams in a game that could determine both the NFC West crown and the No. 1 seed in the conference.
Meanwhile, the streaming record of 24.3 million from Ravens-Texans on Christmas 2024 still stands. Given the two Netflix games set for December 25 this year (Cowboys-Commanders, Lions-Vikings), it’s unlikely that there will be a new high-water mark for streaming in 2025.
And with the Chiefs fading, the Prime Video game on Christmas night between Denver and Kansas City probably won’t get there, either.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer had a conversation with George Pickens about the wide receiver’s pointed social-media attack on Prime Video’s Richard Sherman.
The former NFL cornerback questioned Pickens’ effort during Thursday night’s loss to the Lions, calling Pickens “uninterested” and “disengaged.”
“In his words, [Pickens] said, ‘Hey Schotty, I didn’t play my best game,’” Schottenheimer said on Monday, via Todd Archer of ESPN. “I think that, unfortunately, none of us played our best game, so that’s reality. But again, I don’t worry about George and his love for football and playing this game. Again, you know for five or six weeks, he was the talk of the sporting world: ‘Look at George Pickens.’ We didn’t coach or play well enough to win that game in Detroit. They beat us. It is what it is.”
Pickens caught five passes for 37 yards in the loss to the Lions.
He responded to Sherman in a since-deleted social media post on Friday, writing, “And it’s funny cause I thought former players would know that such as p---y ass Richard Sherman, WHO BTW AINT SHH WITHOUT THE LEGION OF BOOM.”
“I talk to George about a lot of things. I’ll keep that between George and I,” Schottenheimer said. “I love watching the guy play football. I’ll just kind of leave it at that. I think the guy has more fun playing football than most people. I think when we do that, I think that’s usually a recipe when you’re as talented as he is that’s why he can impact games the way he does.”
Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb remains in concussion protocol, but with the team on a mini-bye, he has extra time to recover.
Coach Brian Schottenheimer offered a promising update on Lamb on Monday as the Cowboys returned to the team facility.
“He’s doing good,” Schottenheimer said, via the team website. “Talked to him over the weekend. He’s progressing nicely, and hopefully things work out like we expect.”
In Thursday night’s 44-30 loss to the Lions, Lamb had six catches for 121 yards before landing on his head with 12:42 remaining in the third quarter.
He has 57 receptions for 865 yards and three touchdowns in 10 games this season.
The Cowboys also are waiting to see the status of edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney (hamstring) and left tackle Tyler Guyton (knee) as the week progresses. Both missed the game against the Lions.
“We will find out a little bit more over the next two days, 48 hours,” Schottenheimer said of Clowney and Guyton’s availability for Sunday Night Football.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer had no issue with the perception created by receiver George Pickens during Thursday’s game. Schottenheimer seems to have an issue with the reality authored by Pickens on Friday.
Regarding Pickens’s pointed social-media attack on Prime Video’s Richard Sherman, Schottenheimer said he’ll be talking to Pickens.
“I’m aware of what was supposedly put out there,” Schottenheimer said Friday, via Todd Archer of ESPN.com. “I’ve not talked to him yet. I understand it’s been taken down, but I will be talking to him, just checking on him. Again, this is unfortunately things that we deal with in this profession. But I have not spoken to him, but I will.”
Speaking to him is one thing. The precise message will be another. Will Schottenheimer tiptoe around the problem? Will Schottenheimer be more pointed about the expectations?
The entire issue dredges up factors that made the Steelers willing to trade Pickens (whom they didn’t properly use) and pay market value to DK Metcalf (whom they don’t properly use): Accountability, or lack thereof; maturity, or lack thereof; self-awareness, or lack thereof.
When the overriding question is the value of Pickens’s next contract — and whether the Cowboys will kick the can to 2026 via the franchise tag — everything matters. Once that big contract is signed, the team assumes the risk. Of injury. Of ineffectiveness. Of the player creating issues with no effective mechanism for making it stop.
A massive contract gives the player who receives it power. The Cowboys need to be ready and willing to surrender so much authority to Pickens.
Recently, owner/G.M. Jerry Jones was sufficiently smitten by a Monday night performance from Pickens that Jones declared it was “poetic,” an “opera,” a “ballet.”
Once Pickens get paid, it also could become a Greek tragedy.
