FRISCO — You can tell when Dak Prescott is happy.
Check the football field and the Cowboys quarterback is throwing passes with a smile, knowing who’s catching them.
Check the locker room when Prescott is raving about the talent running routes for him.
The Cowboys traded for George Pickens this offseason, giving them a dynamic wide receiver to pair with CeeDee Lamb and a potential near-unstoppable force for their offense.
“Huge. Huge. Yeah, very huge,” Prescott said of adding Pickens. “I mean looking at [the] guy’s tape, you see what he does, the kind of receiver he is. He’s going to win on one on ones. He can win two vs. one if he has to. Very, very talented guy. When you can add him alongside a CeeDee and the rest of the weapons we have, I’m super excited.”
In the last three seasons, no receiver has caught more passes than Lamb. He’s caught 343 passes in 49 games. Lamb has also picked up the third-most receiving yards (4,302) and fifth-most touchdowns (27) from 2022 to 2024.
Over that same time span in 48 games, Pickens has 2,841 receiving yards with 174 catches. Pickens brings speed and length to an offense that averaged 21.3 points per game with Prescott at quarterback before his injury in the eighth game of the 2024 season.
A healthy Prescott, with an improved running attack and combined with Pickens and Lamb, is dangerous for defenses.
“Man, we complement each other very well,” Lamb said. “Obviously, he’s a tall figure [6-3]. His ability to go up and get the ball at the highest point is amazing. I don’t think anybody in the league can really [do that]. He’s up there with the guys in the league as far as 50-50 balls, deep threat. Anything as far as running routes, it’s pretty good. It’s good to see.”
Wide receiver tandems aren’t a new thing for the Cowboys. Go back to the 1990s with Michael Irvin and Alvin Harper, the early 2000s with Terrell Owens and Terry Glenn, and the 2020s when Amari Cooper paired with Lamb.
When the Cowboys traded for Cooper before the deadline in 2018, Prescott gushed about what he brought to the team.
Same thing is happening with Pickens.
The ability to stretch defenses with Pickens’ speed is an element the Cowboys’ offense lacks on a consistent basis. There is also the ability to force defenses to pick and choose where the most coverage will reside.
Last season, Pickens was second in the NFL in receiving yards of 20-plus air yards (515) and on vertical routes (547). Lamb has become such a force in a variety of ways that going into Week 17, he led the NFL with 513 receiving yards against man coverage. He led the NFL in that category in 2023.
“He brings, when you break the huddle, you want weapons,” team co-owner Stephen Jones said, “and certainly with CeeDee and George, I saw something where you put their stats together [the] two most productive guys the last two years on one team. We were needing that.”
In the first year of Lamb and Cooper in 2020, they combined for 2,049 yards and 10 touchdowns. The next season, Lamb earned his first Pro Bowl berth with 1,102 receiving yards and six touchdowns. After Cooper was traded, Lamb took over as the main offensive threat. He set a career-high in 2023, leading the NFL with 135 catches with 1,749 yards and 12 touchdowns. He held out the summer of 2024 before getting a new contract extension, making him one of the highest-paid players on the team.
The missed time in offseason workouts led to a slow start last season. It’s something Lamb is mindful of now as he’s worked with Prescott at Celina High School and The Star.
“The last time I had OTAs and training camp was 2023,” Lamb said, nodding his head about the production of that season.
Over the years, Lamb and Pickens worked out together in the offseason, forming a good relationship. It doesn’t seem anyone is worried who will get the most targets, with Pickens dismissing the narrative of a 1A or 1B on the Cowboys roster.
If anything, Pickens said he’s learned much from Lamb.
“Just intermediate stuff,” he said. “He’s got great feet, stepping in certain places. He steps in place a lot, which means he can get where he’s going fast and in a short space. And he’s tall [6-2]. A lot of people don’t know he’s kind of tall.”
As the Cowboys’ offseason moves forward, Lamb and Pickens give this franchise hope the offense will break out when the regular season begins in September.
“I saw his comments right where we don’t have a one, we don’t do A’s and B’s,” coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “We think that there’s a one over there. CeeDee said it. If you look over there, there’s a one there. So I think that’s the way that we view GP. My time with him has been just incredible.”
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