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George Pickens #3 of the Dallas Cowboys

What looked like a potentially discouraging story for the Dallas Cowboys and star wide receiver George Pickens this week has been, perhaps, quickly defused. That’s because aggregators on Twitter/X have been conflating a mention about the Cowboys having fined Pickens during the 2025 season–a fine that has already been aired and discussed publicly–and twisting the mention into multiple fines that are just now coming to light.

Credit Pro Football Talk insider Mike Florio with having the cooler head on the topic, and hopefully, it is the cooler head that prevails.

The whole conflagration started with a note from ESPN’s Todd Archer in a story about Pickens’ free agency, in which Archer wrote, “Brian Schottenheimer alluded to Pickens still being late to things, and multiple sources said Pickens was fined during the season.”

But it had already been reported that Pickens and fellow star receiver CeeDee Lamb had missed a bus while the team was in Las Vegas for a Monday night game, the first game after their bye week. Presumably, Pickens was fined for that.

George Pickens Fined by Cowboys ‘Multiple’ Times?

But that does not mean that Pickens was fined repeatedly, or that the Cowboys were not happy with his approach to the season.

Again, the aggregators ran amok with the facts on the Cowboys and their star receiver. The “JPA” account, with 314,000 followers, wrote, “𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧: The Cowboys fined WR George Pickens multiple times last season, according to @toddarcher.”

The “Dov Kleiman” regurgitation account wrote, “Oh Boy: The Cowboys reportedly fined star WR George Pickens multiple times last season, per @toddarcher. Pickens is a name to watch this offseason.” 

Longtime Cowboys reporter Mike Fisher wrote on Twitter/X, “HE’S SO FINED? Did #Cowboys Just Launch ‘Smear Campaign’ Against George Pickens?”

And the answer is no on all of the above. Again, credit Florio, who wrote, “That has been twisted into a claim that Archer has reported the Cowboys fined Lamb ‘multiple times.’ That’s not what Archer said. … For now, it doesn’t look like the Cowboys have launched a smear campaign.”

George Pickens Was Outstanding in 2025

Now, to be fair, as Florio notes, the Cowboys could yet initiate a smear campaign against Pickens to help fend off potential suitors who might drive the receiver’s price up too high. Just because the Archer note does not amount to much does not mean the Cowboys won’t use the media to drive the price down on Pickens.

But the Cowboys have done nothing but praise Pickens, almost across the board. Team owner Jerry Jones has been effusive in his description of Pickens’ impact. His son, VP Stephen Jones, has done the same. So has coach Brian Schottenheimer.

Pickens recorded 93 catches for 1,429 yards this season, ranking No. 4 in the league in yardage this season. That’s going to do more to drive his market value than anything the Cowboys might leak to the media.

GettyDallas Cowboys COO Stephen Jones, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones

 

Cowboys Have Had Effusive Praise

Besides which, all the kind words the Cowboys have had for Pickens–how the issues he had with attitude and temperament in Pittsburgh have not surfaced in Dallas–are out there and on the record. Again, that’s going to matter more for how Pickens is viewed than anything that gets leaked.

As Jones himself said, “Listen, there’s nothing we can do. I know it’s fun, but there’s nothing that we can gain from speculating, and conjecture. The bottom line is that we’re in good shape. We built a trade so that we can have, potentially, our options. Of course, frankly, he’s playing better than we could have even anticipated.

“And he is—let me emphasize this again—an outstanding teammate. He brings energy to the team, even when he is not making some of those receptions. Bottom line, it’s working.”

 

Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney

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