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Orlovsky Predicts Pickens Cowboys Headaches In A Good-News Way

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Adam Schultz | Last updated May 15, 2025 9:12 AM ET

The need for the Dallas Cowboys to get CeeDee Lamb a running mate was glaring, and the reason was that defenses could easily defend the offense with just 88 as the lone playmaker.

They can't now.

With the trade for George Pickens, the Cowboys now have two genuine No. 1 receivers, and that is nightmare fuel for defenses.

Given that the Cowboys want to establish the run behind a revamped offensive line, having two weapons on the outside gives Dallas an element of unpredictability that will cause defenses to guess what is about to come.

And for analyst Dan Orlovsky, who was talking on NFL Live, just having Pickens on the field will cause defenses headaches before the ball is even snapped.

"That's why the addition of Pickens matters so much," Orlovsky said. "Very rarely can you just line up defensively when I, as an offense, have a really good player on one side, really good player on the other side, and allocate four people to them. Because one of those guys is going to get singled up more than not, if not, then we get to run the football. This now presents a lot of problems for a defense before a ball is even snapped, just structurally, how do you want to handle us?"

Having Lamb and Pickens on the field, the defense won't be able to take one away as they did last season because that means either Lamb or Pickens is left one-on-one, and with Dak Prescott, that is a matchup he'll take every day of the week.

Plus, we haven't even mentioned Jake Ferguson between the numbers yet, or KaVontae Turpin as a true receiver.

If the defense does try to drop into coverage to curtail the explosive pair, Schottenheimer's desire to run the football will take center stage here. If Dallas then starts picking up yards and moving downfield, suddenly, a defense can't put extra bodies back to deal with Lamb and Pickens; it must stack the box to stop the bleeding.

And then both receivers can feast on play-action, another tool Schottenheimer likes to use.

So teams are damned if they try to cover both and damned if they don't, and it has been a long time since a Cowboys offense has been able to dictate to a defense like that.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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