The Pittsburgh Steelers made one of the biggest post-draft splashes of the offseason when they traded wide receiver George Pickens and a 2027 sixth-round draft pick to the Dallas Cowboys for a 2026 third-round selection and a 2027 fifth-rounder.
During a Monday appearance on Fox Sports Radio, NFL insider Adam Caplan expanded on why the Steelers gave up on Pickens while he is in the final year of his rookie contract.
“They made a decision, at the end of the 2024 season, that they knew that they were not going to extend George Pickens’ contract,” Caplan said about Pittsburgh, per Jake Brockhoff of Steelers Depot. “There was no way this would work with Pickens, they felt. And they were going to move him for whatever they could get, the best they could get. And Dallas was very interested, and they made that work.”
It’s no secret that Pickens, a 2022 second-round draft pick, caused numerous headaches for Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin over the past three seasons. Pickens was the subject of numerous trade rumors before he reportedly showed up late for Pittsburgh’s Christmas Day game against the Kansas City Chiefs this past December and before the Steelers agreed to acquire DK Metcalf from the Seattle Seahawks in March. As part of that move, Pittsburgh handed Metcalf a five-year contract worth $150M.
“They had to get somebody to replace [Pickens], and they were not gonna wait for the draft,” Caplan added about the Steelers. “By the way, the word around the league was, nice receiver draft (in 2025), not great. And they felt like Metcalf was better than anyone in this draft, and they might be right about that, so they made this move.”
The Steelers seemingly were so “fed up” with Pickens that they viewed trading him as an addition-by-subtraction move even though one would think future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers would’ve liked to have had the 24-year-old as a weapon this coming fall. As for Pickens, he reportedly will feature for the Cowboys in a contract year as he looks to prove the Steelers and critics wrong while serving as Dallas’ No. 2 receiver behind CeeDee Lamb.
