Coming up as a team interested in George Pickens during the draft, the Cowboys are indeed moving forward with a trade to land him. The Steelers will cut bait on Pickens a year early; they are sending him to Dallas, ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Todd Archer report.
The Cowboys will obtain the contract-year wide receiver in exchange for a third-round pick. Here are the terms of the trade:
Cowboys receive:
- Pickens
- 2027 sixth-round pick
Steelers receive:
- 2026 third-round pick
- 2027 fifth-round pick
Shortly before the draft, Jerry Jones had said his team was working on multiple trades. And his team went through the draft without selecting a wide receiver. Closely linked to Tetairoa McMillan, Dallas left the draft without acquiring a CeeDee Lamb complementary target. The team now has that option. Pickens will relocate ahead of his contract year, becoming the latest WR talent the Steelers will pass on handing a second contract.
The Cowboys have searched for a high-end Lamb complementary piece for years, and they will now trade for one. The Cowboys continue to look to the trade market to land receiving talent. This move comes after swaps involving Brandin Cooks and Amari Cooper; the latter’s departure helped create a years-long need in Dallas. Although Jones has swung and missed on big-ticket trades for receivers in the distant past — for Joey Galloway and Roy Williams — the Cooper move panned out. A belated replacement will arrive in the form of Pickens, whose impending relocation may well nix a rumored Cooper reunion.
Dallas dealt Cooper to Cleveland in March 2022, only obtaining fifth- and sixth-round picks for him. The team became closely connected, mostly via Jones, to Odell Beckham Jr. that year. No signing took place, and the Cowboys played out the string without much help for Lamb. Michael Gallup‘s December 2021 ACL tear sidetracked the former 1,000-yard playmaker’s career, and while Cooks still delivered reasonable production in 2023 following a trade, he missed a chunk of last season due to injury. Cooks returned to New Orleans as a free agent, leaving little alongside Lamb. Pickens joining holdover Jalen Tolbert in a contract year changes that equation ahead of Brian Schottenheimer‘s HC debut.
Having followed through with a rumored Pickens trade, the Steelers are now the team with a wide receiver need. This comes, of course, as the team is wooing Aaron Rodgers for what would likely be a one-and-done stay. Rodgers has not publicly committed to Pittsburgh, but he did throw passes to Metcalf and remains in communication with Mike Tomlin. The Steelers have remained confident the future Hall of Famer will ultimately sign, but his potential receiving corps is now suddenly much thinner.
That said, the Steelers have bolstered their 2026 draft arsenal. With Rodgers (or Kirk Cousins, potentially) only being a short-term fix, Pittsburgh will need better ammo in the event 2026 becomes the next draft featuring a bona fide QB1 investment. The AFC North team had been aiming to make an early-round move in either this draft or the next for a passer; after the team passed on doing so this year, by only adding Will Howard in Round 6, 2026 now looks like the draft the team will seek to acquire its belated Kenny Pickett replacement.
More to come.
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