It’s pretty wild that, a year after Dallas Cowboys receiver George Pickens had a sterling season with 93 catches and 1,429 yards–the fourth-most receiving yardage in a single season of any Cowboys pass-catcher in history–we’re crawling to the NFL trade deadline with insiders and league wide observers weighing in on whether the Cowboys are just going to cut bait and trade Pickens altogether. It’s not that Pickens is having a bad year, with his current pace putting him at 1,132 yards for the season if he plays all 17 games, but much of the damage he has done has not been at key moments of the games, and he has not been the same in terms of reliability.
It does not help that Pickens has a hamstring injury that has forced the Cowboys to stop sending him on deep routes and to also take him off the field–he has only played a little more than 80 snaps combined in the past two games. The fact that Dallas is a massive disappointment at 3-5 has helped contribute to the notion that this has been a bum season for Pickens.
Brian Schottenheimer: ‘Gotta Get George Pickens Going’
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer, though, said on Wednesday that much of the perceived struggles of Pickens belong not with Pickens but with him. He pointed out that CeeDee Lamb has been massively productive, but admitted that it is up to the play-caller to get more for Pickens.
Said Schottenheimer, in response to a question from longtime beat writer Clarence Hill of DLLS Cowboys: “If I showed you the call sheet, Clarence, and you saw the targets for him, the targets for 88, it fills the entire back of my call sheet. Again, when you have two of them, it’s gonna get spread around a little bit. And so CeeDee and George both having good years. CeeDee’s numbers are incredible.
“But again, George is the guy that we’re focused on, knowing we gotta get him going more and better, and that starts with me as the play caller.”
Cowboys Not Punishing Over Run Blocking
More important, though, was that Schottenheimer addressed the issue of Pickens’ blocking struggles in the run game. The coach had called out Pickens for lax effort in blocking for running back Javonte Williams before Week 7, and in the following two weeks, Pickens saw his snap count slashed.
But Schottenheimer insisted on Wednesday that it was the hamstring, not the blocking, that got Pickens pulled from those games.
As Hill reported: “Brian Schottenheimer told me that George Pickens snaps have been limited by his injuries. He has ‘not’ been taken off the field because blocking in the run game. To take one of his best players off the field purposely ‘would be poor coaching by me.'”
Cowboys’ Brian Schottenheimer Makes George Pickens Admission