FRISCO — Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens has been the subject of a lot of conversations after the Cowboys’ loss to the Lions on Thursday regarding criticism about his performance and the reasoning for it. That included a conversation between Pickens and his head coach, too.
Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer didn’t go into many details, but he did say Monday that he and Pickens talked about the game and Pickens’ subsequent, now-deleted, response on social media to former NFL cornerback Richard Sherman, who was critical of Pickens’ effort level in the loss to the Lions.
Schottenheimer, just as team owner Jerry Jones did recently, reiterated that there isn’t a concern about Pickens’ effort level.
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“We talked a little bit about it. In his words, he said ‘Hey Schotty, I didn’t play my best game.’ I think that, unfortunately, none of us played our best game, so that’s reality,” Schottenheimer said on Monday. “But again, I don’t worry about George and his love for football and playing this game … for five or six weeks, he was the talk of the sporting world. ‘Look at George Pickens.’ We didn’t coach or play well enough to win that game in Detroit. They beat us. It is what it is.”
Pickens has been very productive in his first season with the Cowboys. He’s third in the NFL in receiving yards (1,179) and top-10 in both receptions (78) and receiving touchdowns (8).
After the loss, Pickens admitted that he didn’t meet his high standard for himself in the loss to the Lions. He finished with five catches for 37 yards.
“You can’t just disappear,” he said after the game.
That was part of Sherman’s criticism for Pickens. Sherman, now an analyst for Amazon’s Thursday Night Football coverage, deemed that Pickens looked “uninterested.” Sherman said Pickens looked “disengaged” based on his effort level in the loss. He also pointed out that the Cowboys should consider a performance like Thursday’s when they’re considering paying Pickens, an impending free agent, a massive contract extension.
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Pickens responded the following day on Instagram in a quickly deleted post, saying that he thought Sherman — a former player — would be able to understand how the Lions were schematically playing Pickens. Pickens said after the game that more attention should be put on the fact that two other Cowboys receivers, CeeDee Lamb and Ryan Flournoy, had over 100 yards receiving. Pickens, in a post that insinuated explicit wording multiple times, also took a shot at Sherman’s playing career, saying the former All-Pro wasn’t successful after his time in Seattle.
Schottenheimer said on Friday he was aware of the post and would talk with Pickens about it. Schottenheimer didn’t go into details about their conversation before Monday’s press conference, but he kept returning to one takeaway about Pickens in general.
“I talk to George about a lot of things. I’ll keep that between George and I. I love watching the guy play football,” Schottenheimer said. “I’ll just kind of leave it at that. I think the guy has more fun playing football than most people. I think when we do that, I think that’s usually a recipe when you’re as talented as he is that’s why he can impact games the way he does.
“Every time I’m around him, I know he just loves football. He loves playing football. It’s a place like most of these guys where they get to just be their true selves. I know he’s great in practice and he’s great in the games because he loves it.”
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