‘Starts With Me’: Brian Schottenheimer Owns Getting George Pickens Going As Dallas Cowboys’ Play Caller
FRISCO, Texas — Getting George Pickens the ball earlier in games comes up in conversations every day, Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Wednesday, and the job of doing it falls on him as the play caller.
Pickens caught two of four targets for 48 yards in the Dallas Cowboys’ 33-30 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. A 35-yard catch on Dallas’ opening drive of the third quarter was wiped out by an offensive holding penalty. His 37-yard catch on the next scoring drive helped set up Dak Prescott’s 5-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Moving Pickens around the formation is part of the daily conversation.
“Move him around. I mean, these are the conversations we have daily,” Schottenheimer said. “He’s such a big part of what we’re doing as a football team and as an offense to get him involved. You see the playmaking ability on the long touchdown, the big play, I guess, that got called back because of a holding. Moving him around a little bit is something that we’ve talked a lot about.”
“But, again, I’m just really proud of him, how he’s banged up and he’s playing through it, which is great,” Schottenheimer continued.
Pickens was limited in Wednesday’s practice with a hamstring injury. He was also limited last week with shoulder and hamstring injuries before playing against Arizona.
George Pickens’ Targets Fill The Back Of The Call Sheet
Slot alignments and motion for Pickens were part of the plan going back to training camp. Moving him does not guarantee he gets the ball, but it is something the staff wants done earlier in games.
“It has some. When we move him, it doesn’t mean he’s always going to get the ball,” Schottenheimer explained. “But it’s certainly something that we’d like to get done earlier in games, get him off to a good start.”
A set number of touches per game is not how Schottenheimer approaches it. The plays drawn up for Pickens already take up the back of his call sheet.
“No. If I showed you the call sheet and you saw the targets for him,” Schottenheimer said. “The targets for [Pickens], it fills the entire back of my call sheet. Again, when you have two of them, it’s going to get spread around a little bit. CeeDee and George both having good years. CeeDee’s numbers are incredible.”
“But again, George is the guy that we’re focused on knowing we got to get him going more and better,” Schottenheimer added. “And that starts with me as the play caller.”
CeeDee Lamb leads the NFL with 92 targets and has 60 catches for 709 yards and six touchdowns. Pickens has 39 catches on 62 targets for 533 yards and two touchdowns, with one 100-yard game.
Brian Schottenheimer Says Penalties Hide Some Of Pickens’ Big Plays
Pass interference calls Pickens has drawn do not show up in his receiving totals. Schottenheimer counted those as big plays too.
“When you talk about big plays, there’s a lot of different ways to look at it. The ones that don’t go into the books are the PIs,” Schottenheimer said. “We hit George, he gets called back for a penalty. George got a big PI penalty. Ryan Flournoy had a big PI penalty.”
A 23-yard pass interference penalty against Arizona moved Dallas to the Cardinals’ 2-yard line on the drive that ended in Prescott’s touchdown run.
Pickens finished third in the NFL with 1,452 receiving yards last season, his first in Dallas. He is playing this season on the franchise tag at $27.2 million.
Dallas visits the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Kickoff at Lucas Oil Stadium is set for noon CT on FOX.
