Pickens Good-News Headaches Await Cowboys Fans
FRISCO - What if the Dallas Cowboys find George Pickens to be a "headache'' ...
In the very best ways?
Dallas' trade for the controversial Pittsburgh Steelers receiver brings with it an element of unpredictability.
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That goes for his new employer, as the Cowboys are vowing to work with Pickens in a way that will have all of his emotion funneled in the right direction.
But it also goes for Dallas rivals.
"That's why the addition of Pickens matters so much," ESPN analyst and former NFL QB Dan Orlovsky said of Dallas 1-2 punch of CeeDee Lamb and Pickens at wideout. "Very rarely can you just line up defensively when I, as an offense, have a really good player on one side, really good player on the other side, and allocate four people to them. Because one of those guys is going to get singled up more than not, if not, then we get to run the football.
"This now presents a lot of problems for a defense before a ball is even snapped, just structurally, how do you want to handle us?"
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In other words ...
Having Lamb and Pickens on the field, the defense won't be able to take one away as they did last season because that means either Lamb or Pickens is left one-on-one.
And with Dak Prescott, that is a matchup he'll take every day of the week.
Additionally comes the trickle-down impact, as Orlovsky notes, of new coach Brian Schottenheimer seeing the opposing defense dropping into coverage to curtail the explosive pair ... and reacting with his physicality-first running game taking charge.
And the step after that? Dak play-action, another tool Schottenheimer likes to use, with defenses now completely off-balance.
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So the headaches can ensue when it comes to Cowboys opponents ...
And the hope is they greatly offset any headaches caused by Pickens' infamously erratic behavior.
Related: Cowboys Micah Parsons Speaks Out Strongly 'Handshake' Deal Report
Related: Cowboys Going Back To The Future With Tyler Booker?
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