Teams 'laughed at the idea' of meeting Steelers' trade demands for George Pickens
Teams 'laughed at the idea' of meeting Steelers' trade demands for George Pickens
Did Jerry Jones and his son Stephen Jones get bamboozled in the acquisition of George Pickens? The Dallas Cowboys have added to their wide receiver corps in a major way, grabbing the fourth-year wideout from Georgia in a post-draft trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Dallas gave up their 2026 third-round pick, along with a Day 3 pick swap in 2027 (their fifth for the Steelers' sixth). In return, the club now has a bonafide field stretcher to command the defense's attention away from WR1 CeeDee Lamb.
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But the price was steep for a player the Steelers clearly wanted to get rid of. In grading the trade, The Athletic's Jeff Howe mentioned that Pittsburgh made it abundantly clear during the draft that Pickens was available. Teams scoffed at the idea of meeting their asking price.
Word leaked during the draft that Pickens was available if anyone wanted him. Some teams polled by The Athletic at the time laughed at the idea of inviting Pickens into their locker room for any price, let alone a second-day draft pick. There wasn't a lot of interest in talking with the Steelers about a trade.
What isn't said, but extremely possible is that the Cowboys were included amongst the teams that dismissed the idea of giving the Steelers what they were asking for. Clearly they weren't among the group that had major hesitations about adding the mercurial star to their locker room, but they didn't give up this year's draft capital.
The return is higher than expected, but the Steelers had to wait a year to get it. Of course, the initial hope was to acquire a pick in last month's draft, but they would have had to take less compensation.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Teams laughed at Steelers' attempting to trade Pickens during draft
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