Cowboys' Jerry Jones seems to offer final verdict on George Pickens 'madness'

Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones has defended wide receiver George Pickens on multiple occasions after numerous outsiders criticized the alleged lack of effort that Pickens showed during Dallas' 44-30 loss at the Detroit Lions back on Dec. 4. 

During a Friday appearance on Dallas sports radio station 105.3 The Fan, Jones seemed to want to put the potential Pickens controversy to bed for good. 

Jerry Jones has George Pickens' back once more

"I think the criticism of this last ballgame is being hard on him," Jones said about Pickens, per Jon Machota of The Athletic. "Not justified. I understand what we wanted to do, but there was more to it than met the eye. Let’s just leave it all at that."

Pickens was accused by some of running lazy routes both before and after fellow Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb went down with a concussion during the Lions game. Fans and analysts have blamed Pickens for a third-quarter interception that resulted in Detroit completing an easy touchdown drive. Late in the game, Pickens got behind two defenders but then failed to make a real play on what seemed to be a catchable deep pass. 

Following the defeat, Pickens used social media to clap back at former All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman after Sherman said Pickens looked "uninterested in playing football" against the Lions. First-year Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer later revealed that he and Pickens spoke about the wideout's performance and about his reply to Sherman. 

Jerry Jones rips George Pickens "madness"

"A game like that leaves us all wanting more, and of course, when we lost Lamb, it was glaring if we had any type of play that didn’t work the way it appeared it should work," Jones added during his comments. "That’s a mouthful of saying, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a body of work or a season dismissed as quickly as it was with Pickens getting criticized against Detroit. And that’s madness. But I’ll tell you what, he’s had a great week of practice."

It's understandable that Jones wants his players to move on and focus on the upcoming "Sunday Night Football" game versus the 5-8 Minnesota Vikings. 6-6-1 Dallas trails the 8-5 Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East standings, and the Eagles will host the 2-11 Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday afternoon. 

The Cowboys trail the 7-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the 8-5 Lions and the 9-4 Chicago Bears in the battle for the NFC's final wild-card playoff berth.