George Pickens is relishing a chance for a ‘fresh start’ after being traded from the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Dallas Cowboys during the 2025 NFL offseason.
Pickens told reporters as much Tuesday ahead of his first training camp with the Cowboys. He also appeared to take a shot at his former team’s offense during his news conference.
‘I’m definitely excited to run better plays,’ Pickens said when asked if he would be more than just a ‘deep-ball guy’ in Dallas.
Pickens played under two different offensive coordinators during his three seasons with the Steelers. He spent his first two seasons under Matt Canada before Arthur Smith took over the role in 2024.
Pickens was productive in each of his three seasons – he averaged 58 catches for 947 yards and four touchdowns per season with the Steelers – but Pittsburgh’s offense was below-average as a whole. The Steelers finished 27th and 22nd in yards per play during Pickens’ two seasons under Canada before Smith led them to a 25th-ranked finish in 2024.
That’s why Pickens is hopeful a move to Dallas can allow him to level up. The Cowboys sported a much better passing offense than the Steelers over that span. Though Dallas ranked 28th in EPA per pass play in 2024, when Dak Prescott missed nine games with a hamstring injury, the Cowboys ranked top-10 in the category in both 2022 and 2023.
Pickens could help Dallas once again reach those heights and believes he will be a great complement to CeeDee Lamb, opining the duo could ‘for sure’ be the best wide receiver tandem in the NFL.
‘Just different type of styles of play. A lot of people over the years got different styles of play, but CeeDee’s a certain type of guy, then I’m a certain type of guy,’ Pickens said. ‘So, when you mesh that together, it’s like Mario Bros. We definitely can do something special.’