You knew it was only a matter of time.
When the Cowboys made the trade for Steelers' star wide receiver George Pickens last week, the comparison was obvious. A talented-but-sometimes-difficult wide receiver in Dallas? How new and refreshing!
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The moment that Pickens walked through the door at the Cowboys facility, he was always going to draw comparisons to former wide receivers who had played in Dallas. Honestly, the bigger question was who exactly it would be. With a handful of options to choose from, it turned into a fun ("fun") little game about what the laziest comparison could be. And then, while we all debated the merits of each one, Cowboys' COO Stephen Jones just ... came out and said it. While talking on Mad Dog Sports radio (deep sigh) Jones played the hits exactly how everyone eventually expected him to.
Stephen Jones sees a lot of Dez Bryant in George Pickens, because of course he does
"... But here you get a guy who's got experience, who's had great success in the NFL, obviously a tremendous competitior," Jones said. "He reminds a lot in our building of Dez Bryant, in terms of his competitiveness and what he brings to the field, his edge. As I said, we were looking at the draft as a way to look at filling that need. When it didn't happen, we had some opportunities around the league that we were looking at, and this one, at the end of the day, made the most sense."
I mean, fine, whatever. In eight years with the Cowboys, Bryant put up over 7,500 yards on 537 catches with 75 touchdowns, so Pickens has his work cut out for him. To the latter's credit, if he's able to keep up the production that he had in Pittsburgh, the stats would look awfully similar. (And Pickens is probably pacing a touch ahead of Bryant, too.)
So while Jones probably isn't wrong, per se, it just feels like a kinda lazy comparison that's just a bit too pandering. Not every Cowboys wide receiver needs to be the next Dez Bryant; most, if not all of them, won't be. But having the next Dez on the team gets butts in seats, and that is ultimately the goal of Dallas' front office, so I get it. As long as Pickens doesn't have some 'did he catch it' controversy that hangs over the Cowboys' heads for literally a decade, I can live with it.