Cowboys’ George Pickens: ‘I’m not really thinking about contract talks’

The Dallas Cowboys made a bold trade earlier this week, sending a third- and fifth-round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for wide receiver George Pickens and a sixth-rounder.

This trade was made with Pickens being a year away from free agency and not signing an extension after the move, but the receiver, who says that the Cowboys “have a great thing going,” doesn’t appear to be making his contract an issue.

“I’m kind of where my feet are right now, to be honest. I’m not really thinking about contract talks,” Pickens said about his contractual future on Thursday, according to NFL.com. “I’m just glad to be here at Cowboys [headquarters] right now, you know, trying to build a winning culture.”

Pickens is coming off a rocky 2024 season with the Steelers, totaling 59 receptions for 900 yards and three touchdowns in 14 games; he missed three games due to a hamstring injury. Pickens ranked 25th among wide receivers with a 78.0 receiving grade and 27th with a 76.9 overall grade, according to Pro Football Focus.

Across his final four regular-season games, Pickens registered just 11 combined receptions, including a Week 18 contest that saw him catch one pass for no gain against the backdrop of six targets. He had five receptions for 87 yards and one touchdown (36-yard score) in the Steelers’ wild-card round loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

For perspective, Pickens, whom the Steelers selected in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft out of Georgia, averaged an NFL-high 18.1 yards per reception in 2023 and led Pittsburgh in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns in two of his three seasons with the franchise, respectively.

George Pickens says he wants to “prove himself” before earning a new deal with the Dallas Cowboys

Pickens joins a Cowboys wide receiver room that includes four-time Pro Bowler CeeDee Lamb, Jalen Tolbert — who posted a trio of career highs with 49 receptions for 610 yards and a team-high seven touchdowns last season — and KaVontae Turpin, among others.

The newcomer Pickens is particularly excited about playing with Lamb, who has averaged 106 receptions for 1,351 yards and eight touchdowns per season since 2021.

“Oh, it excites me a lot,” Pickens said of playing with Lamb. “In the game of football, we can work off each other. There’s no, ‘Oh, he gets the ball, I get the ball’ — we’re working off each other. That’s why I always come back to, you know, building a winning culture and that’s kind of what we’ve been talking about in Dallas.”

The Cowboys are coming off a 7-10 season that saw quarterback Dak Prescott‘s season end after eight games due to a hamstring injury, and the team move on from head coach Mike McCarthy after five years and promote former offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to head coach.

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