“Some people’s job is to do that, tear down character, see how much clicks they can get, but I’m just here to play football and help the team honestly.”
Pickens’ eight catches and 70 yards in the last two games have been uncharacteristic of the rest of his 2025 season, where he’s racked up 1,212 total receiving yards, good for third in the NFL.
From his perspective, and that of head coach Brian Schottenheimer, teams have been putting extra attention on Pickens recently.
“Double coverage,” Pickens said when asked what teams have been doing recently that’s affected his production. “It’s really that simple, just double coverage. Offensively, all we can do is just try to execute at a high level, no matter what that is.”
Still though, Pickens has been doubled plenty over his career. What’s different about how teams are guarding him now?
“Keeping a guy inside, keeping a guy outside, or keeping a guy over the top and having a guy underneath, just on one side of the field,” Pickens said. “Which is a huge product of CeeDee going crazy, [Ryan Flournoy] going crazy, which I’m super proud of those guys.”
Double covering a team’s best receiver has been common practice for quite some time in the NFL. That’s no different with Pickens, and he’s confident that he and the Cowboys can adjust going forward against those looks.
“Moving guys around. Certain plays, sometimes you can just run the ball, honestly…” Pickens said when asked how to beat double coverage.
“When teams do a lot of scattered coverages, you can honestly just run the ball. They get out of there. When you see a lot of cover 1 when guys roll down and people are in the box, that’s kind of when you want to pass on it, but definitely when we see that, we’ll adjust.”
Up next is a defense that moves a lot of their pieces around in the Chargers, something that’s caught Pickens’ eye when watching them play on film.
“Physical, been watching them a lot,” Pickens said of the Chargers defense. “They like to run fit, I know Derwin [James] likes to play more around the box now later in his career, so we’re just trying to fill voids and get to our routes with speed.”
The Cowboys will still have to make a decision on Pickens following the season as he’s in the final year of his rookie contract. Aside from an extension, another option Dallas has is the franchise tag, which Pickens was once again asked about on Wednesday.
“All I can do is just keep one day forward and keep going.” Pickens said.
