Cowboys coverage reaches new low with Mark Schlereth's pathetic George Pickens rant

There is a reason Dallas Cowboys fans steer clear of major networks like ESPN and Fox Sports 1. The Cowboys drive better ratings than any American sports team, so they are often the lead talking point even when there are more pertinent happenings around the NFL.

Look no further than this week's embarrassing coverage of George Pickens. Between former Pro Bowl cornerback Richard Sherman, Colin Cowherd, and Stephen A. Smith, a vast majority of national analysts slammed Pickens after his sluggish outing against the Detroit Lions.

You can now add three-time Super Bowl champion Mark Schlereth to the list. Like Sherman's rant on Amazon's postgame show, Schlereth's rant felt personal. He attacked Pickens' effort and made a pretty damning remark about how much he would -- or wouldn't -- pay the 24-year-old.

"There's no way that I would pay George Pickens," Schlereth said on 105.3 The Fan. "I wish I could buy him for what he's worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth. "I wouldn't invest a dime into that guy. "I saw him film his own slow-motion movie on Thursday night. When he's not the target, he's not interested. ... I wouldn't invest two cents in that guy."

Mark Schlereth's rant about George Pickens is everything wrong with how the Cowboys are covered

What are we doing, man?

All we heard for the entire season before last Thursday was that Pickens is a better receiver than CeeDee Lamb and should easily eclipse $30 million per year in his next contract. Now, he has one bad game and suddenly isn't worth a dime?

While Pickens developed a polarizing reputation in Pittsburgh, this would be a non-story if he didn't have a star on his helmet. It's the same way the national media covers Dak Prescott. He can go on a heater for two months, but the second he has a bad game, he's taken to the woodshed.

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Lions star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown has quietly had a case of the drops this season that loomed large in a couple of losses, but you wouldn't know it, even though Detroit is one of the better teams in the NFC.

The national media was waiting for Pickens' first slip-up to drag him through the mud. Do the previous three months just not matter? From Weeks 4 to 14, Pickens averaged 108.4 receiving yards per game while catching six touchdowns. He's still on pace to be an All-Pro this season.

And to Schlereth's point about Pickens not showing interest when he isn't the target, that's who Pickens is on almost all of his routes. Again, what about the previous 13 games? Why wasn't it a problem then?

Pickens picked a bad time to have his worst game, and the Cowboys will need him to bounce back, but he had been spectacular all season. He's allowed a bad week without former players like Sherman and Schlereth lecturing us about how much he's worth. It's one thing to expect it from Stephen A. Smith, Colin Cowherd, and Nick Wright.

Embarrassing Cowboys coverage is nothing new, but all we're asking for is just a little bit of objectivity.