← Scoop City: Inside The NFL
Scoop City: Inside The NFL
The REAL reason George Pickens got traded to Dallas Cowboys | Scoop City Emergency Podcast
00:16:38
Loading summary
Transcript25 lines
- [00:00]
A
All right, everyone, welcome into a special episode of Scoop City. We like to call it Emergency Pod. I have Cowboys beat writer for the Athletic, John Michodan. John, how you doing, man?
- [00:09]
B
I'm doing well. It's good, good that there's some content here in the off season. I enjoy it.
- [00:14]
A
That's what I'm saying. Look, it is the middle of May, beginning of May, and there is nothing to talk about whatsoever. And the Dallas Cowboys gave us a gift from the gods. This morning we're on the facility, my Fox show and we were talking about the Cowboys George Pickens. Breaking news gets traded to the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas receives George pickens and a 2027 six round pick from the Pittsburgh Steelers. And Pittsburgh receives a 2026 third round pick and a 2027 fifth round pick. When you saw this go down because it was 3:30am on the West Coast. Okay, about 5:30 your time, 6:00 clock in the morning, what were your thoughts? Thoughts automatically surprised.
- [00:57]
B
I, I, I'm not going to be like one of these people that act like they just know, oh, I knew this was coming. Not with this Cowboys team. It's been, it's been two years since they've had a move, anything close to this because for me, I don't think it, I think it's been longer than that. I think it's a Mari Cooper trade in 2018. But I do think they made some strong moves couple years ago when they traded for Stefan Gilmore and Brandon Cooks about a week apart. But since then, over 24 months of not being, whether you talk about the coaching change, you talk about any of the moves they've made, it has been very, very conservative. And for me, I'm, I'm thinking, okay, well there eventually has to be some type of big move. There has to be more than us just talking about when's this contract going to get done. And so for them to actually do this, it surprised me. The other thing I was going to say is that before the draft, Jerry had talked about them potentially having two trades that were kind of notable that could either be done before the draft or after. But when he said, and he used the word substantive when he says that, I'm thinking, okay, it'll be like a Mingo, Joe, Trey, Lance type thing. I did not think it would be George Pickens. I just did not think that that would be a move they'd be, they would be willing to make. So yes, I was absolutely, absolutely surprised when I saw it.
- [02:07]
A
Yeah, I was surprised too. A couple reasons. One, a Third and a fifth round pick for George Pickens. Right. He obviously still needs a contract. He's going to end up what reports are saying, probably playing out his. And then the Cowboys have an interesting issue, right? Are you going to end up paying two receivers in the 30 plus million dollars? Are you going to let them walk? Are you going to tag them? How do you see this whole situation playing out? Because at first thought I said man that is a lot to give up for the Dallas Cowboys on. I hate the word and I hate the phrase but we're using it a one year rental because it doesn't look like the Cowboys are going to give him a contract right away.
- [02:43]
B
And I mean that's just how the Cowboys do business. They usually drag things out with the top players. I will say they, they have been able to get contracts done with your middle level players but the top players, it seems like those have just continued to drag out. So there's no reason for me to believe especially here's the other part of this. Okay, so George Pickens agent is David Mulligetta, who's the same agent with Micah Parsons. Like I do not see a world where George Pickens gets a deal before Micah does. So I think Micah's deal gets done between now and when they go to camp in mid July. And then Pickens, I think that they'll probably wait because I think they probably want to leave that motivation out there for him of this is your contract year and then if things go well then you can offer him a contract at the end of the season, off season, whatever. Or you could franchise tag him or you could just let him go and then get whatever you get as in terms of a comp pick. But yeah, I don't see them just getting a contract done with him right away. I think that would have been done right now. We would have, it would have been announced right with this that there's an extension. So I think they want him to play it out. And hey there's, there's concerns with that. I mean what if he doesn't show up? You know, what if he, he's like well I'm going to hold out. I mean.
- [03:45]
A
Exactly.
- [03:46]
B
You know that's, you can't rule that out. But that's, that's a risk that I think they were willing to take and covering a team that I think has been getting pretty boring for giving it taking a swing.
- [03:58]
A
When I saw this trade right this morning, west coast driving into Fox, the first thing that came to my thought was like this is A desperate move for the Cowboys. The pressure to win. Now I say desperate because it's a one year rental. You're giving up a third round pick and a fifth round pick. Do you believe there's pressure on the Cowboys to win right now or would they not have made this trait? And especially look, dak Prescott. He's 16, 17 months removed from finished second in MVP voting. He was three and five before last year. And the whole thing was before he got hurt last year, people were saying, hey, you know, he's fine, this is good. How much pressure's on deck and the Cowboys to win.
- [04:34]
B
Now there's definitely pressure on Dak. I mean, you're the highest paid player in the league, so I, there's no question about that. In terms of the rest of the organization, I don't know how much pressure there really is. To me, this deal looks like a. I'm Jerry Jones, I pick Brian Schottenheimer as the head coach. A lot of people question that. I want him to have as much success as he possibly can. Whereas last off season I felt like, as much as he liked Mike McCarthy, I felt like that with Jerry somewhere. And he'll probably never admit this. I thought that there was probably some little bit of anger and holdover from the way that they lost to Green Bay and that he was in a position where he was like, I'm not going to do much on this roster if Mike, if Mike's going to be the guy and get a contract extension, he's going to have to prove it with what we got here and then we'll go into next offseason. And that's not a good way to run a franchise. And that's certainly not something that you can do if you're not the owner and general manager. But I just go by what I've seen covering this team for 15 years and that's what it screams to me and that I know Jerry wants Strattenheimer to be successful and I know that they knew that that number two wide receiver, that there was a hole there. That's why if, if Ted McMillan doesn't go at 8 and he's there at 12, that is your Cowboys first round pick. And so when that doesn't happen, that's where this kind of falls right into place and makes sense in a lot of ways.
- [05:47]
A
Yeah. When you get to. On the field, right. You have first, first year head coach Brian Schottenheimer. You, you obviously have Dak, who is, who's played really well in the regular season, multiple 12 win seasons, second finished MVP voting. My thought went directly to how does George Pickens and CD Lamb fit in this offense together? And when you look at their skill set, they're different. George Pickens speed burner average like 16.7 yards per catch the last couple years. So he's a deep downfield threat. You put him in that boundary receiver which we call the X receiver. He's really good at running slants, he's really good at running stop routes. He's a 50, 50 type ball and it frees Ceedee Lamb up into the middle of the field to do whatever he wants. And probably takes a little bit of pressure off CeeDee Lamb. CDLam last year and I'm sure you know this had had 25% share of the target. That is absurdly high. This takes some pressure off CD allows Ferguson the tight end to work the middle field. What do you expect out of this offense? Because not only Brian Schottenheimer, right, he has to be a head coach. He's calling the plays as well. And he's a first time head coach. He's play caller before. But how do you think this all fits?
- [06:51]
B
That's another reason why I think it had to happen is because let's say that their season last year went a little bit worse. Let's say they have a top five pick. You could draft Ashen Genti and maybe number two wide receiver isn't as big of a need because you're like we got genty. We think Jake Ferguson as our number one tight end is going to have a bounce back here we have CD Lamb. We're probably not going to light it up passing the ball but we're going to have a more balance offense. They didn't really do anything at running back that makes you think like oh no, they got their bell cow now running back solved. So if with what they have at running back, if you don't add that guy like Pickens, all these teams have to do, at least the good ones is go well we're just taking CD away. Go ahead, beat us with Jaylen Tolbert, beat us with Jake Ferguson, beat us with Jonathan Mingo. We don't think you can do it. And so I think that was the biggest reason why you needed to make a move like this. And to your point, that's the thing, like everything up to this point, these first few months of Brian Schottenheimer has been he's checking all the boxes but he's going to be judged on what he does on Sundays and So there's only so much rah, rah, right. Type of guy, things that you can do up until when, Sundays. You got to have the talent out there, and I think that's another reason why they had to make this move.
- [07:56]
A
So you've been following this team a long time. Obviously, I'm from Dallas, very aware of what's going on in that locker room. Right. Micah Parson. Anything that's anything gets national news because it's the brand. It is the Dallas Cowboys. When you look at George Pickens off the field, some can say there are some off field, not issues. But, hey, it might not get the ball. I might act up, I might not do this, and I might do that. And it's been talked about pretty, pretty well. How do you think George Pickens off the field fits into that Cowboys culture where, hey, look, I like Pittsburgh. It's a much smaller market in terms of football. With Dallas, anything you say or do, it is going to be criticized with a fine tooth comb. You know, even if you palms up Dak Prescott on the other side of the field or you take a couple routes up, like, he went viral on Twitter for doing or so he said. How do you think that's going to go over in the locker room, especially with first year head coach Brian Schottenheimer?
- [08:50]
B
So I don't want to compare these two players because they're not anywhere close. But you mentioned being from Dallas, so there is a little bit with me that I see how when you trade Luka Doncic, that you have to feel like you're getting slighted, that you're like, I can't believe. Like, I'm talented. I can't believe this team would move me. So with George Pickens, he's nowhere close to being Luka Doncic, but there has to be some of that where he's kind of like, okay, they don't think that I'm. I'm worth it here. I could have got a contract extension. Why don't I have one with the Steelers right now? They don't think I'm worth it. I think I'm one of the best receivers in the league. So he goes to Dallas and he's in the final year of. Of his rookie deal. So whether he thinks he wants to resign with Dallas or anywhere else, he has to put out his best season this year, and he's going to get the opportunity with probably the best. I don't even think it's probably the best passer that he's played with.
- [09:34]
A
No doubt.
- [09:35]
B
And then the fact that it's also one of those situations where people get sick and tired of hearing this. I'm sure you do too. But the leadership part is a big reason that why the Cowboys have stuck with Dak this long. That's a big part of it. What he brings, leadership wise. If anybody can get through to George Pickens at the quarterback position, I would think it would be Dak Prescott. Dak Prescott is extremely genuine. He's an authentic person. I don't know that. Maybe that's some of the guys like a Russell Wilson. I don't know how well that fits. Whereas with Dak, I just think that it's a bad look for George Pickens if he can't make it work. With Dak.
- [10:11]
A
Yeah. And the quarterbacks you said, I just want to make sure that people understand who he's played with. Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, Mason Rudolph, Justin Fields, Russell Wilson. Dak is easily the best one he's played with. Pickens has had at least 50 catches, 800 yards and three touchdowns in the first three seasons. Do you think that one, it's worth trading for a guy like that without a contract knowing that, hey, you've averaged 900 yards, four touchdowns a year for those time. But are they thinking maybe, hey, Dak can take him to the next level, do you think? Or does Dallas think obviously making this move that it, that it moves the needle? Because we're. We're talking on our show, hey, how is Dak going to take that next step? And to me, that next step is multiple playoff ones. Do you think George Pickens, in just that one movement can get them there?
- [10:57]
B
I don't know if it can just because of the division that they're in. I just think that Philadelphia is still the class of it. And really when this deal happened, it made me think of like, this is the type of deal when the Eagles do it. I'm sitting here saying a lot of other people are like, yeah, how he cooked again, you know, I mean, he's the gold standard right now in football. So I also think that they look at that. I mean, they talked about how they drafted taken Tyler Booker and how important it was because of what's in their division on the middle of these defenses, like a Jalen Carter. They are very aware of what's in the division and that starts obviously with the Eagles. And so they. You'd have to be blind to look at the. That the moves that the Eagles have made over the last few years and think that you're running on that same level. So if you're going to go past them, you probably got to take some chances. They take some chances. They don't hit on everything but when they make an error they move on and they go on to the next thing. They're very aggressive and so that's why I don't know if you're a Cowboys fan or you follow the Cowboys. I don't know how you can praise the Eagles and then be critical of this move.
- [11:53]
A
Makes sense. Let's move quickly to the just the Pittsburgh Steelers perspective. A couple questions. Right When Mike Tomlin selling a receiver, right. Is there a buyer beware type sign attached to it? I just don't know how you can get over the fact that hey, if Mike Tomlin, who's never had a losing season, is one of the most respected and mo and highest longest tenured coaches in the NFL, he's saying we don't want a potential Pro bowl guy and Dallas has taken a shot. And what are your thoughts on that?
- [12:23]
B
So, okay, I'm going to answer this, but I want to get your thoughts as well. Okay. I've had this theory recently and I wonder, you're obviously way closer to this than I am, so I wonder what your thoughts are on this. I think Brian Schottenheimer is kind of where the NFL is and where it's going in terms of a coach. I think Mike Tomlin's style, there's not many guys left like that. You know, the way that, the way that they practice, the way that Mike Tomlin, you know, the way he runs the show, the way, I mean honestly, the way Bill Belichick did things in New England for so long, I don't know that you can be that type of a coach anymore. And it's not because they lost their way of coaching. It's just the players have changed. And so I wonder if sometimes maybe not being in that locker room and or around it, if Mike Tomlins style butted heads with George Pickens where I'm not saying that Brian Shahnheim is going to be at some pushover, but he's going to be more of the players type coach than I think Mike Tomlin who why would Mike Tomlin change when he's had all the success he's had. But I wonder from your perspective, like do you how do you see that changing with the coaches in the league?
- [13:25]
A
Yeah, I think it matters. I think it does. I think obviously like some of these older school type coaches, even Sean Payton is sort of that Bill Parcells Disciple, hard nose Andy Reid. They're few and far between and I think those can work, right? The Dan Campbell. But there also is a little bit of a respect factor for these coaches that, hey, maybe let's do things a certain way. Like we don't have to do things, you know, the way Mike Tomlin does it. There's, there's different ways to winning. So that makes a lot of sense to me. And there's been a lot of talk on the Internet because I follow the Internet very, very closely that the Steelers got fleeced by the trade. Like, oh my gosh, they're just, they're selling George Pickens. They got a third round pick. What's happening? People don't understand that. Look, first of all, they didn't want to deal with the headaches on and off the field because that's real. Second of all, they don't have a quarterback. You're either going to have to pay them now or you're going to have to pay them later. Why not get a third and fifth round pick for one of the better receivers in the game? And a lot of people don't understand the Pittsburgh Steelers do not have a plan at quarterback. Aaron Rodgers, how is, how does this play into him not going there versus not going there? Used to have two stud receivers. Now you just have one. That depth chart, right? The Steelers lost their top rusher and now their top receiver. And I think this is smart for the Sears. I think they're stockpiling picks. They have John 12 picks next year and everyone is looking forward to this 2026 quarterback class. So to me, the trade makes sense from that perspective when you don't want to pay a guy for sure.
- [14:56]
B
And then also it does seem like everything points to Rogers going there and he comes with his own baggage that you're deal with. And so I completely understand it from a Steelers standpoint that if you weren't going to get a contract extension done and you didn't think that George Pickens was buying into the way that Mike Tomlin wants to do things and Mike Tomlin's not going anywhere, then you got to make a move because. And get something in return if it was a different situation. See, that's the thing with the Cowboys. It's like, I know a lot of people get on Micah because of the podcast and then obviously the Cowboys have said they want to see more leadership from them. The Cowboys really don't have many guys that are like that, to be honest with you. I know a lot of people say they'll say like milk drinkers or whatever, that it's not the, you know, you need some guys to kind of stir it up. And that's why I think that they're positioned to take on somebody who, let's be honest, the thing I see from George Pickens is the the concern would possibly be the selling somebody this earlier. The beating the Eagles by three touchdowns. CD goes for a buck 50, three touchdowns. Dak throws five touch Pickens gets three targets, two catches. And he's upset. You know, he's on the sideline or something like that. I also would say, though, to that he also could be on the sidelines reading a book and that seemed like that.
- [16:11]
A
Oh man. Hey, John, I really appreciate you, man. It's an honor blessing for you to be able to come on here and talk football. I'm sure we'll be busy the rest of the week. I'm sure you'll stay busy the rest of the week. This is sort of jolt of energy in the offseason, so we appreciate you joining Scoop City, man.
- [16:25]
B
Man, anytime.
- [16:26]
A
Thanks for tuning in to Scoop City. If you want to hear more, make sure you like and subscribe. We drop our new episodes every Tuesday and Friday.