![\"George](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2253504732-1-e1786276549965.jpg\")
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George Pickens #3 of the Dallas Cowboys <\/p>\n
Training camp for the Dallas Cowboys<\/a> is trudging forward in Oxnard, and the early returns have been encouraging. The rebuilt defense has gotten praise, even from the offense, for its communication and upgrade in talent, while the offense has still maintained its status as one of the most fearsome units in the league. That\u2019s in large part because of arguably the best wide receiver room in the league, headlined by George Pickens<\/a> and CeeDee Lamb<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a critical year for Pickens, of course, after his 93-catch, 1,429-yard showing in 2025 vaulted him into the conversation as a WR1\u2013an important distinction as he heads into free agency next winter. If he backs up last year\u2019s showing with a good year in 2026, he could be a $40 million-per-year guy.<\/p>\n Now, that might not happen in Dallas, not with Lamb already on a $34 million-per-year contract. But Pickens has made it clear: He\u2019d like it to be.<\/p>\n George Pickens: Cowboys \u2018A Different Vibe\u2019<\/p>\n Pickens met with Cowboys reporters on Saturday, and was asked about his comfort level in Dallas, after a rocky three-year tenure in Pittsburgh, where he often felt vilified by coaches and the local media. That\u2019s not been the case with the Cowboys, and there\u2019s good reason to think he wants to stick with the team beyond this year.<\/p>\n Pickens said the difference has been<\/a> how he\u2019s been treated: \u201cI\u2019d probably just say the type of coaches and the people around. When it\u2019s a different vibe and environment then that\u2019s mostly what you\u2019re seeing out of me now. Just, definitely more light-heart people.<\/p>\n \u201cThey kind of just ask questions first, see your answer, you know what I mean? Instead of just going with their own narrative. Definitely being around the guys, too. That\u2019s definitely my No. 1 thing always just because when you can wake up in the morning and see them and we\u2019re going through the same thing. Just being around the whole facility.\u201d<\/p>\n Cowboys Praise Maturity<\/p>\n Pickens drew praise earlier this summer from Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer, who noted that his star receiver has amped up his professionalism.<\/p>\n Said Schottenheimer: \u201cGeorge Pickens today, he was as dialed-in in meetings that I\u2019ve seen since he\u2019s been here. Just following along, questions. I think you\u2019re going to see a very motivated George Pickens this year. That\u2019s good news for us and bad news for the rest of the league.\u201d<\/p>\n And Pickens himself conceded he has been more mature this season than in the past. \u201cDefinitely,\u201d he said, \u201cthe older you get, you definitely get mature. But I would definitely say different components of this year\u2019s team than last year\u2019s team. In a great way.\u201d<\/p>\n George Pickens a \u2018Spatial\u2019 Route-Runner<\/p>\n Pickens also talked about his route-running, which is among the best in the game and has also drawn praise from Cowboys coaches. He said one of the key things about the process is that the perfect route does not exist.<\/p>\n Pickens explained: \u201cPeople don\u2019t understand, route-running is more spatial awareness, so you\u2019re not really running a route\u2014you see routes on Instagram and it looks really cool, but it is just him and his trainer. When football is 11 guys on the field.<\/p>\n \u201cSo routes, honestly, are more spatial awareness than anything, so if you\u2019re going to get man coverage, you sometimes have to lean on the defender to save space. It\u2019s all spatial awareness. The cleanest route is never going to be a thing in my book\u2014it\u2019s just going to be me, open.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSean Deveney<\/a> is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty George Pickens #3 of the Dallas Cowboys Training camp for the Dallas Cowboys is trudging forward in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-401899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}