"It's super good," he said of the post-practice run drills. "I did that when I played at the University of Georgia too, and we also won a championship as well there — back to back years. I feel like when you're running, it's probably painful because you just did a whole practice, but conditioning is another component of the game that can definitely give you an edge."
And that edge is something Pickens — finishing the 2025 campaign with a career-best 1,429 receiving yards and nine touchdowns — is always chasing.
Absorbing competitive cues from three of the best NBA players of all-time, namely, Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, the 25-year-old native of Hoover, AL leans heavily into the Mamba Mentality from Bryant, but also the competitive fire and accomplishments of all three.
"Oh, I kind of always had it \[in me\], honestly," Pickens said of the Mamba Mentality, specifically. "When you hear me say that it doesn't matter what happens on the field or what happens on — I just want to do my best. When I say sentences like that, it's the mentality that I have.
"So just one day at a time, and keep getting better every day."
Needless to say, that is exactly what Pickens is doing in his second Cowboys' training camp: getting better every day. And so much so that if you blink, you'll miss one of his best plays but, no worries, because his best play feels like it's always his next play, anyway.