My take on what to do with George Pickens

[dstew60105]

George Pickens is clearly an outstanding receiver with huge talent and at the young age of 24, is without question a top 10 WR in pro football. We saw this on obvious display this year. And he will garner a very large payday soon.

And yet….I know this won’t be a popular opinion…keeping George Pickens will not make the Dallas Cowboys any closer to a championship than we were this year. I will even say keeping him may actually hinder us from taking the next step to get appreciably better on defense.

Here’s why I believe this:

• Keeping Pickens (and Cedee Lamb) either on the franchise tag or a market based long term contract will make the Cowboys have the most expensive WR room in the NFL. (The bengals currently hold that honor)
• Having the most talented and expensive WR combo doesn’t win championships. It’s a nice luxury but a luxury nonetheless.
• IMO we should either trade Pickens or Lamb to add to the draft capital we desperately need to improve our defense. A defense that is literally one of the least talented in the league.

We need a good offense with just one great WR. Pick one. We need some help at RB and need to shore up the OL some too.

Yes, you have to have a good offense but defense is always going to dictate playoff success. Here’s my formula:

• You have to have a good offense and decent D to make the playoffs.
• You have to have a good offense and really good defense to win a playoff game.
• You have to have a good offense and great defense to win a championship.
• Or a good offense, a really good D and a transcendent QB to win a championship.

We need to trade either Pickens or Lamb, and work like hell on getting a defense that can get stops when you absolutely have to have one. Great defenses can stop offenses with guys like George Pickens. But great offenses alone are never enough.

Time to put a ton of resources into a great defense. We’ve had decades of good offense and what do we have to show for it?

you can structure the deal to be somewhat cap friendly the first two years. By then Cee Dee will be near the tail end of his current deal and you can decide who to keep. Pretty easy to keep Pickens for the next two years.

 

[Praxit]

...Pickens in our offense, keeps us at the top. I think Jerry see's this.

Either they'll tag or give him the cheddar.

 

[MarionBarberThe4th]

Because of these pesky things called contracts.

I’m saying stick with Pickens and lamb and build on them and plan for a 2027 kinda reboot deal


At times last year Pickens looked like the best receiver in the league .

So he’s human and not entirely locked in for 5 months straight. It doesn’t seem to matter to his teammates. It is what it is . He’s excellent but only half reliable

 

[Cowboyny]

I understand, but I disagree. All I care about is getting to the playoffs and winning playoff games. Anything that impedes that I oppose.

IMO if keep two great receivers at the expense of adding a ton of talent on defense, we will be staring down another 7-9 win season and either barely making the playoffs or winning a WC game at most.

I’ve had enough of mediocrity. IMO - We need a major departure from our usual mode of operations. When was the last time this team made the defense a major priority? Answer is the last time we were winning SBs.

Agree to disagree, but they have plenty of resources to fix the defense in a hurry without moving on from Pickens.

 

[McKDaddy]

Tag and trade!

I lean this way as well.

 

[McKDaddy]

I will even say keeping him may actually hinder us from taking the next step to get appreciably better on defense.

Bob - do we know the answers as to why he was showing out and then went quiet again? was he injured? protecting himself to get to the off season?

I agree with your overall thoughts but it seems information on these questions would help clarify.

 

[KingCorcoran]

Surely at least 1 team would be willing to give up their 1st for Pickens?

He's consensus top 10 at his position, maybe higher AND at a premium position too.

He could elevate many teams next year and become their instant WR1 (a high end 1 at that). Yes, his baggage seems to follow him however, I think 2, 3, 4 teams would take the "baggage" risk given the talent on show.

Once the Cowboys apply the tag he controls where he goes and for how much. He will simply not sign the tag until a deal he like$ is in place, and for a team he prefers to play for. That scenario will not garner a first round pick or even a second.

And Jerry Jones is not going to hand Mulugheta that kind of power. Any team interested in Pickens would have to get a deal done with Mulugheta before they’d trade anything to Dallas. Do you believe Jerry would be comfortable waiting for Mulugheta to inform him “OK, now you can work out a trade with this particular team”? Not a chance.

 

[Blackrain]

I believe keeping GP will have little bearing on what these two will do to upgrade the defense. I think they will use their draft picks and dumpster dive to accumulate this talent. Maybe sign a couple more FA but not in the blue chip level.

The important thing is getting a great DC…. No cap limitations.. and please no Whitecotton.

Spot on brother

 

[Blackrain]

Let's step back and look at this logically for a moment.

Absolute job one is to get the best defensive coordinator money can buy because it has no effect on salary cap and it makes the best use of the talent we have.
Next
We can use the resources we have in the draft to go all defense because our offense is set.

Finally we can use free agency to fill any other holes that our defensive coordinator thinks need to be filled.

Dismantling our offense after we finally have it at a pretty elite level honestly makes no sense to me with the resources we have available..

Disclaimer:: this plan only works if we hire an elite defensive coordinator not some scrub that makes Jerry feel comfortable.

 

[Brooksey]

George Pickens is clearly an outstanding receiver with huge talent and at the young age of 24, is without question a top 10 WR in pro football. We saw this on obvious display this year. And he will garner a very large payday soon.

And yet….I know this won’t be a popular opinion…keeping George Pickens will not make the Dallas Cowboys any closer to a championship than we were this year. I will even say keeping him may actually hinder us from taking the next step to get appreciably better on defense.

Here’s why I believe this:

• Keeping Pickens (and Cedee Lamb) either on the franchise tag or a market based long term contract will make the Cowboys have the most expensive WR room in the NFL. (The bengals currently hold that honor)
• Having the most talented and expensive WR combo doesn’t win championships. It’s a nice luxury but a luxury nonetheless.
• IMO we should either trade Pickens or Lamb to add to the draft capital we desperately need to improve our defense. A defense that is literally one of the least talented in the league.

We need a good offense with just one great WR. Pick one. We need some help at RB and need to shore up the OL some too.

Yes, you have to have a good offense but defense is always going to dictate playoff success. Here’s my formula:

• You have to have a good offense and decent D to make the playoffs.
• You have to have a good offense and really good defense to win a playoff game.
• You have to have a good offense and great defense to win a championship.
• Or a good offense, a really good D and a transcendent QB to win a championship.

We need to trade either Pickens or Lamb, and work like hell on getting a defense that can get stops when you absolutely have to have one. Great defenses can stop offenses with guys like George Pickens. But great offenses alone are never enough.

Time to put a ton of resources into a great defense. We’ve had decades of good offense and what do we have to show for it?

No need to pick one, we have plenty of budget. This makes sense if you have cap problems but we can open 90-100M in cap. Besides the normal doomsday report, this is the best cap situation we've ever had and we're the 2nd youngest team in the league. We can create enough to sign Pickens, Javonte, Clowney, Clark and we can still sign 2-3 TOP FA's and sign our draft picks including 2 #1's. We don't even need 100M to do this... we need about 60M. The Micah trade made all things possible with the cap.

 

[stiletto]

If Dak and CeeDee were serious about winning a championship they'd volunteer to take less money and help get Pickens signed BUT greed and the "brotherhood" is heck of a drug..

 

[gimmesix]

George Pickens is clearly an outstanding receiver with huge talent and at the young age of 24, is without question a top 10 WR in pro football. We saw this on obvious display this year. And he will garner a very large payday soon.

And yet….I know this won’t be a popular opinion…keeping George Pickens will not make the Dallas Cowboys any closer to a championship than we were this year. I will even say keeping him may actually hinder us from taking the next step to get appreciably better on defense.

Here’s why I believe this:

• Keeping Pickens (and Cedee Lamb) either on the franchise tag or a market based long term contract will make the Cowboys have the most expensive WR room in the NFL. (The bengals currently hold that honor)
• Having the most talented and expensive WR combo doesn’t win championships. It’s a nice luxury but a luxury nonetheless.
• IMO we should either trade Pickens or Lamb to add to the draft capital we desperately need to improve our defense. A defense that is literally one of the least talented in the league.

We need a good offense with just one great WR. Pick one. We need some help at RB and need to shore up the OL some too.

Yes, you have to have a good offense but defense is always going to dictate playoff success. Here’s my formula:

• You have to have a good offense and decent D to make the playoffs.
• You have to have a good offense and really good defense to win a playoff game.
• You have to have a good offense and great defense to win a championship.
• Or a good offense, a really good D and a transcendent QB to win a championship.

We need to trade either Pickens or Lamb, and work like hell on getting a defense that can get stops when you absolutely have to have one. Great defenses can stop offenses with guys like George Pickens. But great offenses alone are never enough.

Time to put a ton of resources into a great defense. We’ve had decades of good offense and what do we have to show for it?

I don't think keeping Pickens and building a great defense have to be mutually exclusive. Just because our GM chooses to be cheap in free agency doesn't mean it is necessary. Philly paid an expensive quarterback, two top receivers and a running back and still was able to build a defense capable of winning a Super Bowl last year.

I also think you are assuming that the Joneses would use the resources to improve the defense. Not paying Pickens does not mean the FA strategy would change. In fact, it would likely just mean we gave up a top 10 player at his position and weakened the offense while still just doing what we usually do in FA and getting cheap hold-that-spot players.

 

[Einstein]

Yes. But that “points allowed” in 2023 was skewed IMO. We had a shut out against a bad giants team, held a really bad Washington team to 10 points twice, 10 to a really bad jets team, and awful NE team to 3 points. Skewed the point totals.

But the better teams with better offenses…like SF (we gave up 42), Buffalo (gave up 31), and the packers (we gave up 48 in the playoffs) showed that our defense wasn’t as good as we thought.

Plus we were living off sacks and TOs. That was good. But when we didn’t get them and got behind, we couldn’t get stops.

So are you saying no other top D ever had skewed numbers? I mean all time defenses don't grow on trees. That I really remember watching, it was the 85 Bears, 2000 Ravens, and maybe the 02 Bucs that were dominant.

 

[Bobhaze]

So are you saying no other top D ever had skewed numbers? I mean all time defenses don't grow on trees. That I really remember watching, it was the 85 Bears, 2000 Ravens, and maybe the 02 Bucs that were dominant.

No, I’m just saying the 2023 Cowboys defense did not play well when it counted most against stiffer competition. Against the best offenses we played in 2023, we gave up 42, 31 and 48 points.

Regular season accomplishments are important but only in relationship to what they translate to in the playoffs.

The 2023 defense gave up 48 points in our only playoff game. Whatever it was in the regular season, unfortunately it clearly didn’t amount to much in the playoffs.

 

[Wangchung83]

George Pickens is clearly an outstanding receiver with huge talent and at the young age of 24, is without question a top 10 WR in pro football. We saw this on obvious display this year. And he will garner a very large payday soon.

And yet….I know this won’t be a popular opinion…keeping George Pickens will not make the Dallas Cowboys any closer to a championship than we were this year. I will even say keeping him may actually hinder us from taking the next step to get appreciably better on defense.

Here’s why I believe this:

• Keeping Pickens (and Cedee Lamb) either on the franchise tag or a market based long term contract will make the Cowboys have the most expensive WR room in the NFL. (The bengals currently hold that honor)
• Having the most talented and expensive WR combo doesn’t win championships. It’s a nice luxury but a luxury nonetheless.
• IMO we should either trade Pickens or Lamb to add to the draft capital we desperately need to improve our defense. A defense that is literally one of the least talented in the league.

We need a good offense with just one great WR. Pick one. We need some help at RB and need to shore up the OL some too.

Yes, you have to have a good offense but defense is always going to dictate playoff success. Here’s my formula:

• You have to have a good offense and decent D to make the playoffs.
• You have to have a good offense and really good defense to win a playoff game.
• You have to have a good offense and great defense to win a championship.
• Or a good offense, a really good D and a transcendent QB to win a championship.

We need to trade either Pickens or Lamb, and work like hell on getting a defense that can get stops when you absolutely have to have one. Great defenses can stop offenses with guys like George Pickens. But great offenses alone are never enough.

Time to put a ton of resources into a great defense. We’ve had decades of good offense and what do we have to show for it?

Great post and those that disagree only are doing so bc they want Daks inflated stats vs winning.

 

[Wangchung83]

No, I’m just saying the 2023 Cowboys defense did not play well when it counted most against stiffer competition. Against the best offenses we played in 2023, we gave up 42, 31 and 48 points.

Regular season accomplishments are important but only in relationship to what they translate to in the playoffs.

The 2023 defense gave up 48 points in our only playoff game. Whatever it was in the regular season, unfortunately it clearly didn’t amount to much in the playoffs.

Defense didn’t give up 48, I like how yall skew numbers. Dak himself gifted packers 14 to start the game. Pick six and another on our own 19 with no rest for defense. 48-14=34 genius. Yhat doesn’t even include the turnovers on downs

 

[KingCorcoran]

Tag him , and if one hell of an offer comes up, make the move. Rather keep him tho

What if he balks at being traded? What if his agent asks for so much money the team the Cowboys are trying to trade him to says “no thanks”? Pickens doesn’t have to sign the tag right away. And until he does the Cowboys can’t trade him.

Stop with the tag and trade nonsense. It doesn’t work that way.

 

[Chuck 54]

I wouldn’t mind a tag and trade, but unless we get a first round pick or something equivalent for Pickens, I’m going to keep him.

If I could trade him straight up for Max Crosby, I would do that despite the age difference.

 

[DStar22]

Dak is not taking us to a SB with a single double covered #1 and a less than great running game.

So I have to disagree. we need to shoot our shot with Pickens, williams and a new DC, 2 replacement LB's, an edge rusher and a CB

and for god's sake, somebody sign Aubrey.

 

[KingCorcoran]

I don't think keeping Pickens and building a great defense have to be mutually exclusive. Just because our GM chooses to be cheap in free agency doesn't mean it is necessary. Philly paid an expensive quarterback, two top receivers and a running back and still was able to build a defense capable of winning a Super Bowl last year.

I also think you are assuming that the Joneses would use the resources to improve the defense. Not paying Pickens does not mean the FA strategy would change. In fact, it would likely just mean we gave up a top 10 player at his position and weakened the offense while still just doing what we usually do in FA and getting cheap hold-that-spot players.

Hurts/Brown/Smith is $108 million AAV. Prescott/Lamb is $94 million AAV. I’m going to guess Pickens is not going to sign for $14 million AAV. The tag is $28 million for him.

No wonder Jerry prefers to avoid players’ agents.