FRISCO, Texas — Nobody in the locker room was happier after Sunday’s 34-30 win at Houston than George Pickens, Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Tuesday at The Star.
Pickens caught two passes on three targets for 75 yards against the Texans, a 53-yarder in the third quarter and a 22-yarder on the winning drive. He played 67 of the Dallas Cowboys’ 78 offensive snaps. CeeDee Lamb caught 17 passes on the other side.
Brian Schottenheimer Says George Pickens Could ‘Put Up 150’
Pickens is still learning the system, according to Schottenheimer. One of his catches in Houston came with his eyes covered, and he laughed off a double move that went nowhere when Dak Prescott got hit.
“Yeah, again, I think if you look at George last year, I don’t know. You guys can look it up. I don’t think he was putting up insane numbers even until week four, five, six, whatever it was, because I think that’s when CeeDee kind of went out. But George is learning the system as well. George easily could have had three catches for 180 yards in that game. He caught one with his eyes covered, and he opens people up all the time,” Schottenheimer said. “But what I’m going to say about George is, if you blink, he’s going to put up 150. There’s no doubt about that.”
“The greatest thing about George Pickens was no one was happier in that locker room after the win than George Pickens. No one. It tells you how magnetic a personality he has and how much he loves playing football. We had a double move where Dak got hit and couldn’t get the ball pushed, and he laughed it off,” Schottenheimer continued. “That shows the maturity and how much this guy just wants to see the Dallas Cowboys win. They try to take CeeDee Lamb away, but George can beat double coverage. He can beat triple coverage. You don’t always have to throw it into triple coverage if they’re going to play CeeDee one-on-one.”
On Monday, Schottenheimer said the double move would have added about 60 yards to Pickens’ total with better protection.
Dak Prescott Explains How George Pickens Changes Coverage
Pickens is running deep routes at one of the highest rates in the NFL. Prescott said those are real routes, and if a defense leaves one defender on Pickens, the ball is going to him.
“Yeah, I mean, he’s pulling two guys with him almost all the time, and I don’t know if he’s clearing guys out. Those are all real routes, and if you want to leave one guy on him, I’m going to throw it to him. And so that’s just making the defense show us what they want to do,” Prescott said. “When we’re sending him deep, as I said, if it’s going to be one-on-one, I’m going to throw it down there. If not, you’ve got to take another guy with him. And that gives us a numbers advantage, whether it be with CeeDee, Flo, or Ferg, or whoever else is in there.”
Cowboys Praise George Pickens’ Team-First Approach
Pickens played at Hoover High School in Alabama and at Georgia. Winning is all that matters to him, according to Prescott, and defenses taking Pickens away is what gives other players their opportunities.
“I mean, he’s a guy that wants to win first and foremost, above everything else. And I think coming from winning programs, whether it be Hoover in high school or whether it be Georgia in college, winning is all that matters to him. And secondly, it’d be different if we weren’t giving him the opportunities or trying to and defenses weren’t just respecting him and taking him away,” Prescott explained. “And so he’s a guy that’s smart, understands the game of football, and he knows when the defenses are playing him that way, the opportunity it gives other guys.”
“And so he’s a hell of a teammate, and I’ve said that. And I think that shows, a guy that’s celebrating everybody else’s success, who obviously wants success, but as long as the team wins and he’s doing his job, he’s happy,” Prescott continued. “And we can’t be more thankful for guys like that and guys with an attitude like that.”
Prescott has been in this second year with Pickens, Lamb, and the rest of the offense. Schottenheimer said little has turned over on that side of the ball and that Prescott is in a good spot.
“Year two with these guys. Offensively, there’s not much turnover when you look at it, from Fergie to Javonte being back, to GP and CeeDee and Terp and Flo and all those guys. He’s very, very comfortable,” Schottenheimer said. “They’ve worked tremendously hard to be comfortable. He’s in a good spot because he’s got good players around him and incredible control of what we’re trying to do.”
Dallas is 2-2 and hosts the 0-4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday at AT&T Stadium, with kickoff at 7:15 p.m. CT on Prime Video.
