FRISCO, Texas — George Pickens said Wednesday that he and CeeDee Lamb are the best wide receiver duo in the NFL. The Dallas Cowboys open the season Sunday night at the New York Giants.
“Yeah, we definitely think we’re the best,” Pickens said. “Now, for everybody’s brains and mindsets, I don’t know what they’re going to say. For us, yeah, we’re the best.”
Lamb and Pickens combined for 2,506 receiving yards in 2025, the second-highest total by a wide receiver tandem in the league. Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams finished 12 yards ahead of them. Pickens played all 17 games and set career highs with 93 receptions, 1,429 yards, and 9 touchdowns. He made his first Pro Bowl and was named second-team Associated Press All-Pro. Lamb played 14 games and finished with 75 receptions, 1,077 yards, and 3 touchdowns.
Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins and the Los Angeles Rams‘ pairing of Puka Nacua and Davante Adams are the two tandems Pickens singled out as ones he respects. Beyond those four players, he said he does not “look at or really watch other guys.”
George Pickens On Building Chemistry With CeeDee Lamb
Dallas acquired Pickens on May 7, 2025, sending Pittsburgh a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick and taking back a 2027 sixth-round pick along with the receiver. The Pittsburgh Steelers had drafted him 52nd overall out of Georgia in 2022.
Playing the same position puts Pickens and Lamb in front of each other every day, which he separates from the timeline for a receiver getting close to a defensive tackle or a linebacker.
“I feel like a lot of guys in the league are friends, but you get a guy on your team and he’s a D-tackle, then you get a linebacker, I feel like it’s going to take longer to mesh,” Pickens explained. “But me and [Lamb] play the same position, so we see each other every day.”
Seventeen or 18 games inside the same scheme is what Pickens points to entering his second season in Dallas.
“Way more comfortable, especially when you have 17, 18 games learning the same scheme,” Pickens said. “So I’m super, super comfortable now.”
Pickens signed his franchise tender in late April, a one-year deal worth $27.3 million fully guaranteed. Dallas announced before the draft that it would not negotiate a long-term contract with him this offseason, and the July 15 deadline for tagged players passed without an agreement. His contract cannot be extended until after the Cowboys’ final regular season game in January 2027. Lamb is playing on the four-year, $136 million extension he signed in August 2024.
Pickens said he is “itching” to get back into a true game setting.
“Anytime I can continue what I was leaving off of, and definitely for the team,” Pickens said on his goals for the season. “Big things, big goals, big aspirations for everybody, so definitely want to accomplish that…”
“Kind of where I left off last year, and then definitely for a team goal, that’s definitely what I see and what I kind of want for the team that we’ve got this year, is to do bigger and better things, whether that’s later in the postseason or past the postseason to the bigger game. Just reaching for that, honestly,” Pickens continued.
George Pickens Answers Greg Newsome II Ahead Of Week 1
Greg Newsome II joined the Giants this offseason after four-plus seasons in Cleveland. He started 5 games for the Browns in 2025 and recorded 23 tackles and 3 passes defensed before finishing the year in Jacksonville. Cleveland took him 26th overall out of Northwestern in 2021.
Newsome told reporters after a Giants practice in East Rutherford last week that New York has “the best cornerback room in the league.” Pickens heard the comments.
“Yeah, that’s definitely how he should feel,” Pickens said. “Now, how we should feel, I’d definitely probably say a completely different story. But that’s cool that he definitely thinks that, that’s cool…”
“I feel like he should definitely feel like that, but I feel like we’re definitely not thinking the same thing,” Pickens added.
Sunday will also be the first Giants game for John Harbaugh, who was hired in January after his 18-year run in Baltimore ended. That run included a Super Bowl XLVII title. Pickens faced Harbaugh’s Ravens twice a year during his three seasons with the Steelers.
Pickens said physicality is what Harbaugh harps on personally.
“Physical,” Pickens said. “I feel like John Harbaugh, that’s one of the biggest things he likes to harp on, just him personally. Just be physical, and I feel like when he drives that notion through the guys that he’s got on his team, I feel like they’re going to come out and be a physical group.”
The notion Harbaugh drives through his roster is not new ground for Pickens.
“I played at Georgia in the SEC, so it’s been kind of physical my whole life,” Pickens said. “So I’m kind of used to it.”
Kickoff is set for 7:20 p.m. CT on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with NBC and Peacock carrying the broadcast. Dallas and New York split their two meetings last season. The Cowboys won 40-37 in overtime in Week 2 at AT&T Stadium, and the Giants took the finale 34-17 at MetLife on Jan. 4.
