In the Week 14 game against the Detroit Lions, wide receiver George Pickens showed exactly the Dallas Cowboys should be afraid to pay him the big bucks.
Pickens finished the 44-30 loss with five catches for 37 yards, but the more glaring issue was his not giving full effort on some of his routes.
This is exactly one of the issues the Pittsburgh Steelers had with Pickens, on top of his behavioral and lateness issues, the latter of which has already gotten him benched in Dallas.
Pickens' seeming lack of urgency was even more frustrating when you consider the Cowboys lost fellow wide receiver CeeDee Lamb due to a concussion.
There is no doubt that Pickens is uber-talented, but you never know what version is going to show up. And one has to wonder if that's going to get any better if Pickens gets paid.
That's definitely something to ponder for a Cowboys team that is facing a situation in which it might either franchise tag Pickens for around $28 million or extend him on a contract that could exceed $30 million annually.
Making that decision even more difficult is the fact that the Cowboys are already paying Lamb a lot of money, so they'd have a large chunk of their salary cap allocated to two wide receivers, one of which is unpredictable, at best.
Owner Jerry Jones seriously has to re-think how much he wants to keep Pickens after what we saw on Thursday night.
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