ESPN insider report on George Pickens goes from dream to nightmare overnight

Before the Dallas Cowboys suffered a devastating loss to the Detroit Lions on Thursday Night Football, fans got a fantastic report about star receiver George Pickens from ESPN NFL insider Jeremy Fowler.

Pickens isn't going anywhere.

For the majority of the 2025 season, Pickens has made himself a boatload of money as a prospective 2026 NFL free agent with his on-field performance. He's already well over 1,100 yards (and counting) with eight receiving touchdowns, and he was almost completely dominant during the Cowboys' three-game winning streak after the bye. But did his performance in the team's loss against the Detroit Lions give the Cowboys reason to hit the pause button?

George Pickens making Cowboys' big-money contract decision more difficult after showing vs. Lions

It's fascinating that this report came out right before what we all witnessed on Thursday night against the Detroit Lions. Pickens was held to just five receptions for 37 yards and a fumble against a defensive backfield that was absolutely gashed by the Packers on Thanksgiving.

Pickens was traded in the offseason by the Steelers not because he isn't capable of being a great wide receiver, but because they didn't feel he carried himself the right way. Fowler's report included an extremely blunt assessment from a Pittsburgh Steelers source regarding Pickens:

"He's a child. The playmaking is breathtaking. You can't take that away from him. He just really struggled with the maturity part [in Pittsburgh]. You didn't know what you were going to get day to day."

(via Jeremy Fowler, ESPN)

The quotes from Fowler's sources within the entire article almost seem ominous when you consider the way things went down against the Lions. During the game against Detroit, it certainly looked like Pickens was not himself, maybe even a little disengaged, and even Richard Sherman of Amazon Prime roasted him after the game.

Sherman said that Pickens was the "story" of the game because he looked "uninterested in playing football."

Ouch.

What sounded like an absolute dream on Thursday sounded more like a nightmare when Cowboys fans woke up on Friday. What if Pickens gets a big-money deal and doesn't 'grow up'?

When CeeDee Lamb went down against the Lions with a concussion, the Cowboys needed Pickens to come through and to say that he didn't would be a massive understatement. It was awesome to see Ryan Flournoy step up the way that he did, but Pickens not only had a fumble against Detroit, he also couldn't make a play on a simple slant route that popped up into the air and was interception by a Lions defender.

That kind of disengagement, even in a one-game vacuum, is unacceptable for a player that could end up costing $35 million (or more) per season on a new contract.

The bizarre thing is, there really is no explanation at all. There are times when Pickens is absolutely locked in and catching everything. Then there are games like we saw against Detroit where he looks like he's mailed it in. Not as much in Dallas, but over the first four years of his NFL career.

This was the Pickens that Steelers fans had warned about. This was the Pickens Cowboys fans were certain didn't come to Dallas. And ultimately, the idea of him being a long-term fixture for the franchise may have turned from a dream come true to a nightmare in the blink of an eye.