Brian Schottenheimer reveals plans to unlock a new dimension of George Pickens' game

Brian Schottenheimer reveals plans to unlock a new dimension of George Pickens’ game originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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George Pickens, playing on a $27.3 million franchise tag after Jerry Jones declined to pursue a long-term extension following his first season in Dallas, skipped all voluntary OTAs this spring on his agent’s advice. 

But when mandatory minicamp opened June 16, Pickens was on the field at The Star. No holdout, no fines, no noise. He showed up and put the contract dispute narrative to rest for now. 

Now, head coach Brian Schottenheimer is ready with a plan. And that plan is going to give NFC defenses something else to worry about.

In 2025, his first year with the Dallas Cowboys after being traded from the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Alabama native had one of the best statistical seasons of any receiver in the NFL. He caught 93 passes for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns, earning All-Pro honors. 

Pickens did almost all of it from the outside X receiver spot, ranking 90th out of 91 qualified receivers in slot snap percentage at just 10%. This year, coach Brian Schottenheimer wants to diversify his role. At the close of minicamp, Schottenheimer told reporters that the team plans to move Pickens around the formation rather than keeping him static on the outside. 

“As we talk about evolving, I would say the biggest thing we’re doing is we want to move George around more,” Schottenheimer said. “He’s not just going to live at X. He doesn’t like that anyways. We want to put him in the slot some. We want to get him isolated some to the front side, the same side as the tight end.”

This alignment flexibility creates tough decisions for opposing defenses. When Pickens lines up in the slot, defensive coordinators must decide whether to match him with a linebacker or drop a safety down to cover him. Paired with CeeDee Lamb, the Cowboys now have two elite wide receivers who can win matchups from anywhere on the field.

Schottenheimer was also blunt about the tactical arms race around Pickens’ slant game and what comes next. “You guys basically tried to stop our slant game because he was so good at slants, and you guys kept asking me about it every week. So everybody kept jumping inside and making it hard on us,” he told reporters. “That’s the biggest thing — how do we complement the things that we know he is so good at… He’s a fun tool to mess around with.”

The league spent a year scheming to take away one thing. The Cowboys spent the offseason building three more.

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