Cowboys Send George Pickens Serious Warning About His Effort

The Dallas Cowboys are looking at everything after suffering a 23-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers on "Sunday Night Football" in Week 6.

The loss dropped Dallas' record to a disappointing 2-4 on the season before getting set to play the 2-4 Philadelphia Eagles on "Monday Night Football" in Week 7.

One player the Cowboys evaluated is getting a warning from the coaching staff before playing the Eagles. George Pickens got a bad rap for some of his effort when he was with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was criticized for taking plays off when he wasn't getting enough targets and wasn't a huge help as a run blocker.

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Per Ed Werder of WFAA, Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer usually defends Pickens for his effort, but he had a different message for the receiver on Thursday, telling reporters that he needed to be more impactful in the running game.

“GP is one of those guys where I don't ever see him really affected in terms of, you know, the emotion," Schottenheimer said. "Does he get the ball? Does he not get the ball? If these guys play a lot of snaps, I think part of it is us rotating those guys through. But he needs to understand that he impacts us in the running game as well.

"You know, he's got to do the same thing in the run game — picking up safeties and blocking corners — just like Javonte does, picking up blitzes so he can catch balls. That's part of the team-first mindset, and GP does understand that. And you know when he's going, they're going to play soft inside. When he's not going, the safety gets pretty good runs at our backs, and that's going to improve.”

Pickens is the second-leading receiver on the Cowboys behind CeeDee Lamb. Pickens has 33 receptions for 428 yards and one touchdown. While he's a huge help for quarterback Dan Prescott in the passing game, Dallas needs him to be an asset for running back Javonte Williams.

The Cowboys are averaging just 3.7 yards per rush this season, which is tied with the Arizona Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles for No. 23 in the league.

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