The Cowboys’ trade chatter has picked up again, but George Pickens still looks like a long shot to be moved before the Nov. 10 deadline.
Dallas is coming off a 38-21 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night and now turns its attention to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 8 on Sunday. One of the more notable details from that win was Pickens’ snap count after head coach Brian Schottenheimer publicly called him out for his role in the rushing game.
Pickens caught four passes for 57 yards and a touchdown against Philadelphia, but he also logged 12 fewer total snaps than Ryan Flournoy. That followed Schottenheimer’s Oct. 22 comment that Pickens “needs to understand that he impacts us in the running game as well.”
Still, NFL insider Tom Pelissero doesn’t see the receiver as a likely trade candidate. In a Substack response to a question about whether Dallas could deal Pickens, Pelissero said he isn’t ruling “anything out,” even with the Cowboys looking for help at edge rusher.
“Making as many trades as the Cowboys have since the Micah Parsons blockbuster naturally depletes draft capital-but if there’s a will, there’s a way. Edge rusher is the biggest need on Dallas’s defense, so I wouldn’t rule anything out. They were, after all, the runner-up in the Maxx Crosby sweepstakes last March,” Pelissero wrote.
Even so, he made clear that Pickens himself is not the most probable name to go. Pelissero said he would be “surprised” if Dallas traded him before the deadline.
“As for Pickens, he’s still an important piece of the Dallas offense, and the Cowboys won’t be out of the NFC East race in 12 days,” Pelissero continued. “Also, he’s making over $1.5 million on the franchise tag, so a team would need a big chunk of cash and cap space to make it work.”
For now, the question is whether Dallas makes any move at all before Nov. 10, and how Pickens continues to fit as the season moves forward.
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