George Pickens traded to Cowboys: Pros and cons of deal for Dallas

The George Pickens trade is a very interesting one for the Cowboys.

The Dallas Cowboys struck a deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday to trade for wide receiver George Pickens. Dallas is sending a third-round pick in 2026 and a seventh-rounder in 2027 in exchange for Pickens and a 2027 sixth-rounder.

Initial reactions to this were all over the place from Cowboys fans. The team has a sore need at wide receiver and Pickens is a very talented one. In that sense the trade is fantastic.

But the trade obviously comes at a cost. While the third-round pick (all due respect to the other change involved, it isn’t substantial) is a bit of a premium commodity, Pickens is in a contract year. He may leave in free agency and get a big deal from someone else (the Cowboys don’t exactly get ahead of situations like this, another factor). That could net the team a compensatory pick in 2027. There are a number of variables involved.

Beyond the variables from a cost acquisition standpoint there is also the matter of Pickens in the locker room. He seemed to wear out his welcome with the Steelers and a head coach who can handle a lot of those situations in Mike Tomlin. Can Dallas really be different?

If it isn’t obvious there are a number of pros and cons here. Let’s lay them out.

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Pros to the George Pickens trade for the Cowboys

First and foremost, Pickens is a fantastically talented player in the NFL. Adding him to this offense brings some serious juice and helps players like Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Jake Ferguson, etc etc, all be better. The floor has been raised.

We can also offer some hindsight pros and note that the Cowboys obviously did take a receiver in the NFL Draft a few weeks ago. The Pickens conversation has been heating up for a while so perhaps (it would stand to reason) they knew this was a move they could execute all along and the freedom of knowing they could pull this lever allowed them to go in other directions. There is an argument to be made that having Shavon Revel and George Pickens with no third-round pick next year is better than Receiver X from this year’s third and no Revel or Pickens with next seasons’ third still in tow.

Pickens has averaged over 15 yards per reception throughout his short career to date. There are doubters to Dak Prescott here and I say this with no intention of igniting any debate about him, but we know that he can succeed at throwing deep down the field. In the past players like Michael Gallup have shined in that role, but Pickens seems particularly suited to take advantage of that element of his new quarterback’s game.

There is also the compensation involved and while our immediate instinct may be to associate this as a con, there are pro elements. The Cowboys may play their usual game with Pickens and not get a deal done, but most logic suggests that this would in fact yield some return down the road.

To be perfectly clear, the Pickens trade being better than the Jonathan Mingo trade does not make the former great. We are talking about an incredibly low bar to clear here.

But when we consider the receiver market from this past offseason there was not a ton to be had or found. It feels fair to accept that Dallas would have addressed the position by way of the draft if Tetairoa McMillan had made it to them, but it isn’t their fault that he went three picks before they were on the clock in the first round.

You can make the argument, if this isn’t obvious, that Dallas has made the most out of this offseason at every position that they could within the realm of practicality.

But everything comes with a price and/or con.

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Cons to the George Pickens trade for the Cowboys

One of our favorite activities around here is to examine the thoughts and opinions from people around the SB Nation universe. We consider ourselves to know the Cowboys best, so the folks at Behind The Steel Curtain must know the Steelers the same way.

If you look at the comments from their post announcing the trade there is your usual mixed bag. Some people feel the Steelers are worse off, but others feel like this was the right move given Pickens’ off the field antics.

Pickens seemed to take issue in Pittsburgh with his target share and for what it’s worth he dealt with some pretty erratic quarterback play. But he was not shy about making his opinions known and that can be an issue for certain teams and front offices.

The Cowboys are in a bit of a precarious place. Jerry Jones is the General Manager and therefore under no threat as far as job security is concerned, but this is Brian Schottenheimer’s first season running the team. We have seen the Cowboys make conscious efforts to bring in players who exemplify levels of leadership in different sorts of way. With all due respect to Pickens, this is the opposite side of the spectrum in that regard.

Can the culture that the team has been creating be a stable enough one to absorb Pickens for the sake of overall team harmony? It has obviously been done before, but there are plenty of examples of it failing as well.

Mike Tomlin’s reputation has taken a bit of a hit in recent season (not winning a playoff game will do that, we know this full well), but he has obviously been around for forever. He has overseen several talented Steelers wide receivers who pursued greener grass elsewhere and there is not really an example to date of him being wrong.

Aside from any off the field factors… Pickens is entering a contract year. We have spent thousands upon thousands of words talking about how poorly the Cowboys handle these kinds of situations. Consider, for just a few examples, the Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb situations of a year ago. Micah Parsons still does not have a new deal. DaRon Bland and Tyler Smith are also eligible for extension at the moment as well.

Maybe the lure of a future comp pick is enough to make you say you don’t care about this factor, but it is one nonetheless. It is part of what makes the trade a difficult one to plant yourself firmly on one side of in terms of liking or not liking it.

Which pro or con do you agree with the most?