Cowboys Trade For George Pickens

[Bipo]

I think Pickens can certainly make the same or better impact as Devonta Smith.

Pickens gives Dak a possession WR he’s never had, and also has big play ability.

I agree Chase/Higgins is the current gold standard, and that has a lot to do with Burrow

I view Lamb as more of the possession guy and Pickens as big play WR. Their YPC proves it.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

I view Lamb as more of the possession guy and Pickens as big play WR. Their YPC proves it.

You don't have to be a burner to be a big play WR. Pickens is definitely a big play receiver.

 

[ravidubey]

Pickens has a wide catch radius and seems to specialize in fielding contested passes. When I say possession guy, I mean a guy who can catch it if it’s in anywhere in the vicinity. He has speed, but maybe his last season with crappy QB’s have jaded me because I’m not picturing a breakaway threat.

His average per catch is high though, and last year at least he tended to be stopped at or near where the shitty pass was caught.

 

[Stars]

Seems to me like Pickens is exactly the type of receiver you should be surrounding Dak with, or any QB that isn't super accurate at times. I've seen so many quarterbacks "throw it up for grabs" and have their receiver save their ass over and over again, but I don't recall us ever having that element to our offense. At least recently. I guess Irvin back in the day was that type of WR. Dez to some extent, though more inconsistent.

 

[bbgun]

 

[Chocolate Lab]

This is where Bob loses me. If you don't agree with him, you're a "casual."

This is also where I wish someone did a study on which of these "gurus" and "experts" get things right vs wrong. I think Sturm is wrong a lot, but no one keeps track of it. Great radio voice, though.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

This is where Bob loses me. If you don't agree with him, you're a "casual."

This is also where I wish someone did a study on which of these "gurus" and "experts" get things right vs wrong. I think Sturm is wrong a lot, but no one keeps track of it. Great radio voice, though.

I mean he is right to the extent that it doesn't really matter with an outside receiver. What matters is does he catch the ball when it's thrown to him. And despite wildly inaccurate throws Pickens has caught 60% of the balls thrown his way. Which is really good when you consider the amount of those that are deep down the field.

 

[Simpleton]

This is where Bob loses me. If you don't agree with him, you're a "casual."

This is also where I wish someone did a study on which of these "gurus" and "experts" get things right vs wrong. I think Sturm is wrong a lot, but no one keeps track of it. Great radio voice, though.

He's right from the viewpoint that many of these "advanced metrics" that are thrown out to measure players are very misleading, and often times are used by casual fans to draw incorrect conclusions. They'll just throw out numbers as if this is baseball where every little thing can be tracked and measured.

Football is one of the most unique sports, and one that least lends itself to using analytics in my opinion. They have a place but I think they can easily be used to paint a very incorrect picture.

In this case I think he's mostly right, especially when apparently the three worst in the league are three of the better "big bodied" physical WR's who don't rely on creating huge separation.

In the scouting community there's different types of separation characteristics, namely separation "quickness" and "physical" separation. Quickness speaks for itself and is what Sturm is referring to as a slot measurement, whereas physical separation is much more difficult to measure and captures things like Brown outmuscling a smaller CB who has good coverage at the last second as the ball arrives.

That's not something that's easily quantified like the quickness aspect where you can just measure the amount of space between two players at a certain moment in time.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

I mean he is right to the extent that it doesn't really matter with an outside receiver. What matters is does he catch the ball when it's thrown to him. And despite wildly inaccurate throws Pickens has caught 60% of the balls thrown his way. Which is really good when you consider the amount of those that are deep down the field.

I don't mean this one particular point, I mean his attitude. You don't agree with him, he's going to sneer at you as a "casual."

But on this one point, if you look at it, it's kind of a silly argument anyway. Notice he qualifies it as "big, outside" WRs. Those are by definition not going to be the quickest guys. I mean, people with Tet McMillian size and Cole Beasley quickness don't exist. It's kind of just physics. I mean, I suspect separation is pretty important for Tyreek Hill, but he's excluded from this because he isn't big.

Anyway, this was more about Sturm. Simp posted as I was typing and I totally agree with him that analytics are mostly useless for football. There are far more variables and far fewer trials than in a sport like baseball. Problem is, Sturm uses them all the time. He'd just claim in this case that you aren't using them properly, like he of course does.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

I don't mean this one particular point, I mean his attitude. You don't agree with him, he's going to sneer at you as a "casual."

But on this one point, if you look at it, it's kind of a silly argument anyway. Notice he qualifies it as "big, outside" WRs. Those are by definition not going to be the quickest guys. I mean, people with Tet McMillian size and Cole Beasley quickness don't exist. It's kind of just physics. I mean, I suspect separation is pretty important for Tyreek Hill, but he's excluded from this because he isn't big.

Anyway, this was more about Sturm. Simp posted as I was typing and I totally agree with him that analytics are mostly useless for football. There are far more variables and far fewer trials than in a sport like baseball. Problem is, Sturm uses them all the time. He'd just claim in this case that you aren't using them properly, like he of course does.

I agree with this.

 

[bbgun]

 

[ravidubey]

I know it doesn’t correlate to whether a good WR can catch a pass, but a lack of separation historically means Dak ain’t throwing it.

He’s never been one to throw a contested ball

 

[ravidubey]

Just… couldn’t … contain himself

 

[Cowboysrock55]

I know it doesn’t correlate to whether a good WR can catch a pass, but a lack of separation historically means Dak ain’t throwing it.

He’s never been one to throw a contested ball

Gallup never had separation.

 

[Simpleton]

Dak has thrown a bunch of INT's the last two years trying to throw jump balls to Lamb (Steelers game in particular), and for whatever reason their timing on that was usually off. That's actually one of the biggest areas I think Pickens will help in.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

And then he claimed he was hacked and this was "AI."

 

[Texas Ace]

Dak has thrown a bunch of INT's the last two years trying to throw jump balls to Lamb (Steelers game in particular), and for whatever reason their timing on that was usually off. That's actually one of the biggest areas I think Pickens will help in.

He could never get that back shoulder throw or fade to Dez either that had become so lethal with Romo and Dez.

Dak just lacks the accuracy as a passer to be effective at placement-type passes like that.

 

[Genghis Khan]

He thinks the Steelers are cheap? Maybe they are, but I have bad news for him.

 

[Simpleton]

He could never get that back shoulder throw or fade to Dez either that had become so lethal with Romo and Dez.

Dak just lacks the accuracy as a passer to be effective at placement-type passes like that.

He was only a rookie with Dez, and he was fine on those throws with Gallup.

Like most things I think it's a combination of Dak being fine, but not great, and that he needs a WR counterpart who is at least good or better at that particular aspect to be able to make it work.

For whatever reason Lamb doesn't seem to have a great feel for it, but Gallup did and I think Pickens is an even better version of Gallup, so I expect to see it working this year.

 

[bbgun]

And then he claimed he was hacked and this was "AI."

I dunno. My good buddy Dbair says I was duped. This could be my "these are the last faces Bin Laden saw" moment.