If you're wondering the real reason why the Dallas Cowboys started their win against the Las Vegas Raiders with both star receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens on the sideline, you're not going to get the answer from Pickens.
Apparently, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Or something like that.
The Cowboys were clearly taking disciplinary action against Lamb and Pickens to start the game, but Pickens didn't convey that. In fact, the opposite. He made it seem like the decision to have both guys on the sideline to start the game was purely strategic.
George Pickens isn't giving Cowboys fans the satisfaction of knowing why he and CeeDee Lamb were benched
Cowboys WR George Pickens when asked why he wasn't on the field for the first series: "Certain personnel. We kind of thought they were gonna come out in certain stuff. But they didn't. They started kinda hunching down on the run, so we started throwing it around a little bit."…
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) November 18, 2025
Hilarious.
Just as everyone was expecting, it was a strategic plan to not have two of the best players on the field to start the game.
This was Pickens's way of saying, "I'm not telling you anything."
Whatever it was that transpired before the game, it didn't matter at all during the game. We saw Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer go over to the receiver duo and dap them up during the game, and we all saw both Lamb and Pickens have phenomenal games for the Cowboys.
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Lamb had five catches for 66 yards and a touchdown (and could have had even more than that), while Pickens dominated with nine receptions for 144 yards and a touchdown. It was one of the best games we've seen from Pickens so far as a Cowboy, and certainly another notch on his belt as he approaches free agency in 2026.
And to think he's going to hit free agency is asinine at this stage. The Cowboys won't be letting Pickens get there, because he's proven to be more of a WR1A to CeeDee Lamb than just a nice role player.
The risk of Pickens as a person was always something that you had to consider if you're the Cowboys. It's part of the reason why it didn't work for him in Pittsburgh with Mike Tomlin. In fact, many felt like the Cowboys were taking a foolish risk, at that, because if it can't work for Tomlin, why would it work in Dallas?
Well, who knows?
The change of scenery may not have fully transformed Pickens as a person, but the way he responded to being on the bench at the start of the game clearly motivated him to play one of his best games of the year.