We graded both sides of the George Pickens trade: How the Cowboys, Steelers fared in the WR move

The Dallas Cowboys made a big splash on Wednesday morning, agreeing to a trade for wide receiver George Pickens. They will send a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for Pickens and a 2027 sixth-round pick.

The Cowboys had been searching for a legit WR2 alongside CeeDee Lamb, and Pickens should elevate their offense. But is Pickens definitely the answer for Dallas? And did Pittsburgh get enough back in return?

Let's grade both sides. Who actually won the deal? I'm evaluating the trade based on multiple factors, including on-field impact, overall value for each side, salary cap implications, and the context of each team's short- and long-term QB outlooks.

Grading Pickens to Dallas

After passing on the wide receiver position entirely in this year's draft, the Cowboys finally got their second receiver to complement Lamb. Pickens is an excellent fit with Lamb, too. He's an outside vertical receiver who will allow Lamb to maintain his heavy dosage of slot alignments in the Cowboys' offense. Pickens ran go routes and deep fades 19% of the time last season, the 10th-highest rate among receivers with at least 300 routes run. He managed 900 yards over 14 games in 2024 and hit 1,140 receiving yards in 2023. And he posted a strong 2.2 yards per route run both years.

According to ESPN's player-tracking-based receiver scores, Pickens has shown growth in his ability to get open since his rookie season. He had a 48 open score in 2022, but that rose to 70 and 68 the past two years. However, his catch score has dropped from a high of 99 in his rookie year to 72 in 2023 and then 40 last season. That looks like the profile of a player who could see positive regression, since a receiver's ability to get open is more stable from year to year than his ability to make catches over expectation.

So, on paper, this move makes plenty of sense for the Cowboys. As poorly as 2024 went for this team, the roster still has the same core as the one that went 12-5 in 2023 (albeit with a different coach) and had a major weakness at receiver after Lamb. To give up a shade more than a third-round pick for one year of Pickens is reasonable, considering how much less it will cost the Cowboys (under $3.4 million) than if he were on the open market.

But this move is not made only on paper. A big part of the reason Pickens is available is it seems the Steelers had had enough of him. After Pickens had two unsportsmanlike penalties against the Bengals last season, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said, "He's got a target on his back because he's George; he understands that. But he's got to grow up. He's got to grow up in a hurry." Then, after the season, Tomlin said, "There's certainly obviously more room for growth there." Earlier in the season, there were questions over Pickens' effort, too, though Tomlin dismissed those concerns at the time.

The risk here is mitigated by the one-year commitment, and if I were the Cowboys, I would want to keep it that way. They should let him play out the season and probably let him walk next offseason in exchange for the possibility of a compensatory pick. If Dallas signs Pickens to an extension before the 2025 season, I would substantially reduce its grade here.

For the Steelers, this is good compensation. The league widely knew they wanted to move on from Pickens, and they still got a Day 2 pick back.

Pittsburgh already acquired Pickens' replacement in DK Metcalf earlier this offseason. While the two wideouts could have played together, there's an obvious overlap in their styles, and it certainly appears that the Metcalf acquisition was in anticipation of losing Pickens. However, the Steelers once again have a receiver problem. Behind Metcalf on the depth chart are Calvin Austin III, Robert Woods and Roman Wilson.

The last piece of the puzzle is how this relates to Aaron Rodgers. Without a second receiver next to Metcalf, Pittsburgh is that much further from being an immediate contender. That makes bringing in Rodgers a little harder to justify -- even if the Steelers' options at QB are extremely limited with the draft in the rearview mirror. Perhaps Kirk Cousins could be another route?

Grade for the Cowboys: B-Grade for the Steelers: B+