Even if the Dallas Cowboys had any interest in moving George Pickens ahead of Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline, which they likely didn’t, there reportedly wasn’t much of a market awaiting them.

According to Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News, Pickens “wasn’t as sought after by teams as some thought he would be. The franchise didn’t receive phone calls about Pickens, two people with knowledge of the situation told the Dallas Morning News.”

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler also added that the Cowboys didn’t receive calls regarding Pickens and that the wideout is “happy in Dallas and didn’t want to be traded. Teams in the receiver market weren’t shopping in the high-end aisle, either, so the idea of a Pickens trade was a nonstarter. Plus, Dallas had no plans to deal him.”

While the Cowboys (4-5) are nowhere close to being a Super Bowl contender, they remains very much in the running for the NFC East crown behind the New York Giants (5-2-1). That always made Dallas an incredibly unlikely seller.

There’s also the fact that Pickens is playing this season on the franchise tag and is a looming free agent. While other pending free agents at wideout were moved like Josh Downs and Keenan Allen, both went for far lower prices than the Cowboys would have demanded for Pickens. Plus, spending that type of future draft capital to acquire a player of his stature would have put pressure on the front office to either cave in to his contractual demands in the offseason or make peace with the situation being a very expensive short-term rental.

Neither scenario would be particularly ideal from a front-office perspective.

The least charitable (and incorrect) interpretation of his barren market is that NFL teams didn’t feel he could positively impact their chances at contention. While Pickens isn’t going to match last season’s fantastic output (93 catches for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns), he’s still on pace to eclipse 1,000 receiving yards this season, posting 39 catches for 533 yards and two scores through eight games.

That regression to the mean should have been somewhat expected. CeeDee Lamb remains an elite receiver and is having a fantastic season—he missed three games last season—and Pickens has very much been the WR2 in 2026.

But Pickens is still just 25 years old and has shown how much of a weapon he can be in the right scheme. NFL teams are assuredly intrigued by his talent, but it’s easy enough to understand why they’d wait until he’s a free agent to pursue him.