For now, winners and losers of the George Pickens’ trade are just paper champions. The true outcome won’t be known for months and years. If Pickens keeps a cool head and stars in Dallas, the Cowboys will do backflips. If Pickens flops or if the Steelers find his replacement for 2025 and beyond, they’ll feel good about the move. But for CBS Sports NFL insider Aditi Kinkhabwala, the Steelers can already be declared winners.
“Oh my gosh, the Steelers absolutely won this trade,” she told 93.7 The Fan’s Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller Wednesday afternoon. “One hundred percent won this trade. To get a third-round pick for George Pickens, that’s fantastic.”
Kinkhabwala has consistently noted the difficulty Pittsburgh had managing Pickens’ short temper. One that often revealed itself during games, needing plenty of attention from coaches and teammates. At his worst, Pickens’ anger led to emotional outbursts, costly penalties, and plenty of headaches. In his time with the team, he racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines from the league and the team.
“It’s just a distraction to the cause at large when you’re constantly having to appease or attend to a player who is arguably your most talented player,” Kinkhabwala told the show. “So what is it like to watch him? Maddening.”
The reasons for dealing Pickens aren’t hard to explain. Just as the organization did with Antonio Brown, Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, and the like, Pickens’ talent wasn’t enough to justify the noise. Juice that wasn’t worth the squeeze. But that doesn’t minimize the dilemma of finding his replacement to avoid the problems of a year ago when Pickens was the team’s No. 1 without a supporting cast. Now, DK Metcalf finds himself in those same shoes.
Dallas will try to avoid the pitfalls of teams that have previously traded for agitated Steelers receivers. The adage, as Kinkhabwala noted during the interview, is if Mike Tomlin can’t make it work, no coach can. New Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer has been praised for his relationship building but he’ll have his hands full with Pickens, fighting for targets as the No. 2 option behind star WR CeeDee Lamb.
If Dallas does what Pittsburgh couldn’t, it will have won this deal. If not, the Steelers will feel vindicated just as they’ve been many times before.
