George Pickens Traded To Dallas: Fantasy Football Outlook for Cowboys and Steelers
Ian Hartitz breaks down the fantasy football fallout of George Pickens being traded to the Cowboys, including what it means for DK Metcalf and the Steelers.
Some might say the Cowboys are finally all in: Dallas has acquired Steelers WR George Pickens and a 2027 sixth-round pick in exchange for a 2026 third-rounder and 2027 fifth-rounder.
Dallas Cowboys Trade For George Pickens
From the Cowboys' perspective, this move immediately fills the gaping WR2 hole left in this offense, largely ever since Amari Cooper was sent off to Cleveland. The additional absence of Brandin Cooks (signed with the Saints in free agency) had previously left this WR room awfully thin behind former first-team All-Pro CeeDee Lamb, but now Dak Prescott has a legit specimen on the outside to work with.
This brings us to Pickens, who just turned 24 in March following a relatively underwhelming 2024 campaign that featured him converting 59 receptions into 900 yards and just three scores. While his status as Pittsburgh's clear-cut WR1 often resulted in all sorts of defensive attention going his way, the three-year veteran usually made on-field headlines for the wrong, yet wildly entertaining, reasons.
Still, this shouldn't distract from the fact that Pickens has proven capable of doing some seriously awesome things on the football field:
- The 6'3", 200-pound talent plays even bigger than that, combining tantalizing contested-catch ability with sneaky-solid speed after the catch. Pickens' highlight film speaks for itself: The man knows how to make big plays.
- Speaking of big plays, the Georgia product has averaged a robust 16.3 yards per reception and 9.7 yards per target since entering the league–marks that rank seventh and 11th among 105 qualified WRs.
- The fit is also rather great inside this Cowboys offense, considering Lamb is usually deployed from the friendly confines of the slot. Pickens should make himself right at home as the offense's X receiver instead of, you know, Jonathan f*cking Mingo.
Now, Mike Tomlin's track record of keeping knucklehead receivers in line before watching them fail for all the wrong reasons elsewhere is certainly troubling, but to Pickens' credit, he's never been in any serious real-life trouble and has played in 48 of a potential 51 games since getting drafted back in 2022.
Premium
Go FantasyLife+
Your league is unique. Your advice should be too. Get personalized tools, rankings, and projections tailored to your fantasy football league settings.
George Pickens and DK Metcalf Fantasy Football Stock for 2025
All in all, the Cowboys profile as a fantastic real-life partner for Pickens as long as all parties involved are able to simply focus on playing ball, and the match also has the potential to go quite well in fantasy land.
Sure, Russell Wilson's moon balls made for some nice connections last season, but Pickens has otherwise been forced to largely deal with one mediocre QB after another. Nobody is exactly mistaking Dak for the best QB in the world; just realize he played at a legit MVP level in 2023, AKA the last time he was healthy for a full season.
Specifically:
- It's tough to move Pickens too far up in the ranks due to the presence of more clear-cut No. 1 options like Courtland Sutton, DK Metcalf, and Calvin Ridley, but I've upgraded the now ex-Steeler from WR38 up to WR31 ahead of guys like Rome Odunze and Jerry Jeudy, among others.
- Lamb remains THE WR3 behind only Ja'Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson; if anything, you could argue having another pass-catcher with a pulse on the field is a positive for the 26-year-old's chances of putting up big-time numbers.
And then we have the Steelers, who are hilariously and unironically already being thrown around in Allen Lazard trade discussions following the news. Now, it's not guaranteed that still-free agent Aaron Rodgers even signs with Pittsburgh, but you would like to think some sort of agreement has been in place … because otherwise they'll be moving forward with either Mason Rudolph or sixth-rounder Will Howard under center.
Either way, the departure of Pickens should give DK Metcalf every opportunity to really dominate target share.
After all, the Steelers traded a pretty penny for Metcalf only to make him the league's fourth-highest paid receiver; it'd make sense if he's the heart and soul of this passing attack regardless of who winds up under center (with all due respect to Calvin Austin, who I maintain is indeed good at football).
Working under the assumption that A-aron does eventually take his talents to Steel City, Metcalf now looks a lot like a low-end WR2 ahead of guys like DJ Moore, Xavier Worthy, and Marvin Harrison, who all have quite a bit more target competition inside their respective passing games. The ex-Seahawk has struggled to be more than a boom-or-bust WR3 for most of his career; just realize he's also never quite had this sort of opportunity to be the first read on virtually every pass play.
All in all, congrats to Cowboys fans for the front office finally doing something exciting this offseason, and potentially kudos to the Steelers for getting some future Day 2 draft capital in return for someone who clearly wasn't in their future plans. People helping people! Hell yeah!
Premium
Go FantasyLife+
Your league is unique. Your advice should be too. Get personalized tools, rankings, and projections tailored to your fantasy football league settings.
