At Pro Football Focus, Dallas Cowboys star receiver George Pickens still gets good marks among the NFL receivers. There are 115 that have been graded, and Pickens is No. 24 overall. That’s not bad, especially considering the Cowboys have the No. 6 rated receiver in the league, too–CeeDee Lamb. It’s the strength of the team, and though the offense has been off kilter in the past two weeks, they’re still the focus of opposing defenses when facing Dallas.
But there’s one thing Pickens is pretty clearly not doing, and it is costly for the Cowboys–and for Pickens himself. He is not pitching in on blocking for what has been the second-worst running game in the league, ranked No. 31 with 456 yards through six weeks of play. PFF rates him No. 111 of 115 as a run blocker in the league. Of course, not being able to run makes it harder to throw, too, and so Pickens’ lack of attention to that facet of the game has brought harm to the passing game, and himself.
George Pickens Called Out on His Blocking
On Thursday at Cowboys practice at The Star, coach Brian Schottenheimer was asked about Pickens’ nonchalance when it comes to blocking. Schottenheimer, who often protects players behind a wall of cliches, was more honest, acknowledging that Pickens’ blocking is a problem.
“George Pickens is one of those guys where I don’t ever see him affected by the emotions—does he get the ball, does he not get the ball?” Schottenheimer said.
“These guys play a lot of snaps, I think part of it is us rotating guys through. He needs to understand that he impacts us in the running game as well. He’s got to do the same thing in the run game, picking up safeties and blocking corners just like Javonte does picking up blitzes so he can catch balls. That’s part of the team-first mindset and GP does understand that.
“And when he is going, they are going to play soft inside. When he is not going, then the safeties get pretty good runs at our backs and that has got to improve.”
Cowboys Not Getting Explosive Plays
It’s little wonder, then, that another topic of conversation with Schottenheimer on Thursday was the Cowboys’ lack of deep plays. It’s all connected, of course–if you don’t block the safeties, it makes it hard to run, and if it is hard to run, defenses will spread backward to take away deep shots. That means, for a player like Pickens, the large chunk plays are not there. Pickens has not had a catch of more than 20 yards since Week 3.
Said Schottenheimer: “We’ve looked at that, we’ve talked about that. Teams are playing us a little bit soft, they’re forcing the ball underneath. There’s a fine line between being overly aggressive—we say it this way, a shot called is not a shot taken. We have called some shots, and when they are there we take them, and when they’re not, we check it down.
“I think Dak (Prescott) has actually done a really good job being patient against some of these teams that want to push out and put a number over the top of our elite weapons. But we’re also aware that explosive plays make it a lot easier to score. If you look at our last two games, we just have not been able to produce those.”
Cowboys Brian Schottenheimer Airs George Pickens Complaint