Pickens has a defender of his performance in Detroit, with an interesting take on the receiver's perceived effort in the loss.
The fallout from George Pickens' performance in the Dallas Cowboys' 44-30 loss to the Detroit Lions on Thursday has been quite the watch.
Most of it has seen many take shots at Pickens for his effort, or perceived lack thereof, on several routes, as the "old Pickens" from the Pittsburgh Steelers has returned, despite George being a model citizen for the most part since his trade to Dallas.
Others think it will come into play at contract time and that the Cowboys might use it as a reason not to pay him huge money.
But now we have someone who has offered a little bit of a different insight in three-time Pro Bowl quarterback Alex Smith.
Talking on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown, Smith offered a take no one (to my knowledge) has given since the game on Thursday night.
"Listen, I went back and watched every snap of this with George Pickens, honestly, I think we are making a lot out of nothing," Smith said on ESPN. "This guy got doubled all game, and when I mean doubled, I mean cloud, a corner hard inside at the line of scrimmage, and a safety over the top.
"CeeDee Lamb, there's a reason he got so many targets in that first half, there was no help with him, there's a reason Ryan Flournoy got all those targets because, again, George Pickens was taking two [players]."
Right, so that is one way to look at it, but Hall of Fame receiver Randy Moss didn't like what he was hearing from Smith.
"I can't believe my quarterback is sitting up here making excuses," Moss added.
But that wasn't as the panel debated Pickens’ “disinterested effort.''
Former New England Patriot and three-time Super Bowl-winning linebacker Tedy Bruschi then chimed in from a defensive perspective.
"Is that all we have to do defensively is cloud up on you and have a safety over the top, and he's not going to go hard?" Bruschi added
To which Smith had a response and urged people to look at the whole picture, not just the raw numbers from George's performance.
"Listen, there were a couple of plays that were funny and weird scenarios, but this guy got everybody else open is what I'm saying, we only look to his targets and catches and numbers, but listen, this guy got everybody else open," Smith said.
So that was quite the conversation from three players who are well-equipped to speak on such matters.
But either way, it wasn't a good look for Pickens, and he'll have to show in the coming weeks that what we saw in Detroit was an anomaly, not something we should expect moving forward.