Make no mistake, George Pickens is a supremely gifted football player. Some of the balls he has been able to pull in at the University of Georgia and over his three NFL seasons with the Steelers are jaw-dropping and defy physics.
He has an enormous catch radius and unbelievable hands that he extends to catch the football before it gets to his body. Playing for the Dallas Cowboys opposite perennial All-Pro CeeDee Lamb will undoubtedly allow him plenty of opportunities in 2025.
But there is a flipside to the Pickens coin that has plagued him ever since he was a standout at legendary Hoover High School in Alabama. Cowboy fans got a taste of it on Thursday night in the 24-20 loss to the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.
Cowboys WR George Pickens has consistently struggled with the mental side of the game
For all his talent and unique physical tools on the football field, Pickens has always had difficulty mastering his emotions over the course of a game.
At Hoover, UGA, Pittsburgh, and now with the Cowboys, the mercurial pass catcher has been a walking personal foul because he let's opposing DBs get into his head and hasn't shown the impulse control that is necessary to avoid hurting his team.
In a game that was ultimately decided by just four points, his inexplicable penalty with just over five minutes left in the third quarter, as the Cowboys were inside the Eagles' 5-yard line, cost the team a possible win.
Pickens was flagged for clotheslining Philadelphia safety Reed Blankenship, which brought the ball outside the 15-yard line and deprived the Cowboys of an opportunity to take a 27-24 lead. It was just the latest head-scratching loss of focus and lack of discipline that the receiver has displayed his entire career.
Brian Schottenheimer and the coaching staff have been encouraged by how he has bonded with Lamb and mirrored his work ethic since arriving, but it didn't take long for Pickens to revert to his old ways and take a foolish penalty. His modest stat line of three catches for 30 yards will need to improve to offset his sometimes self-destructive behavior.
Get used to it, Cowboy fans, because it is part of the package deal that you sign up for to go along with the otherworldly skill.
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