The Dallas Cowboys‘ “selectively aggressive” 2025 offseason felt incomplete following a run in free agency that involved mostly bargain bin shopping and gambling on disregarded former first-round picks.
However following a 2025 NFL Draft in which they assembled one of the league’s better classes, especially on the draft’s first two days and the subsequent trade addition of explosive wide receiver George Pickens, the Cowboys offseason is now a certified success. That’s according to those at CBS Sports, a growing list that now includes NFL lead analyst Tony Romo, Dallas’ all-time leader in passing touchdowns (248) and passing yards (34,183). He called the wide receiver duo of All-Pro CeeDee Lamb and Pickens “a game changer” as he alluded to his successor Dak Prescott throwing a career-high 37 touchdown passes back in 2021 when Lamb was paired with five-time Pro Bowl wideout Amari Cooper. That was the cherry on top that led to Romo assessing the effort Jerry and Stephen Jones have done to improve their roster as “a great job.”
“That’s a big trade. Having him [Pickens] and CeeDee together is a game changer,” Romo said from a U.S. Open qualifier event, via Law Nation Sports. “If you remember when they had Amari [Cooper] earlier and CeeDee Lamb together, it makes it very difficult to focus on one player when you have two kind of superstars out there. I feel like when you have two guys like that, it just opens up the offense quite a bit. I think the Cowboys did a great job this offseason. Kudos to the Joneses and what they did. They needed to make up ground on the rest of the [NFC East] division, and they did. Extensive [ground].”
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Pickens himself agreed with Romo’s assessment about how impactful he and Lamb can be in tandem with each other in 2025, noting they could each see significantly fewer double teams than they both faced as recently as 2024.
“CeeDee is a super dynamic receiver, super dynamic person, player,” Pickens said on his introductory conference call on Thursday. “I just feel like schematically you won’t be able to double everybody. So that will be a great thing for me and him. … It excites me a lot because in the game of football, we can work off each other. There’s no ‘oh he gets the ball, I get the ball.’ We’re working off each other. That’s why I always come to back to building a winning culture, and that’s what we’ve kind of been talking about in Dallas.”
His field-stretching ability when going deep downfield is particularly thrilling: Pickens averaged 16.7 yards per reception across the last two seasons, a figure that leads the entire NFL among 61 players with at least 110 catches since 2023. His 12 catches of 30 or more air yards in 2024 were the second-most in a single season since 2006 when the stat first began being tracked.
“Just trying to catch every pass. I kind of embrace myself and hone in on that when I’m on the field. Whether that’s a slant, the last couple of years it’s been go balls, so that’s why I led the category in that, but just definitely trying to catch every pass,” Pickens said of his deep-ball output.
Dallas’ chances at contention definitely reflect an increased sense of confidence in the Cowboys in 2025 following the Pickens deal. The betting market has seen just a slight shift in the Cowboys’ odds to win the NFC East and the Super Bowl following the Pickens trade. At BetMGM, the Cowboys jumped from +800 to win the NFC East last Tuesday to now +750. Over at DraftKings Sportsbook, Dallas went from +7000 to win the Super Bowl a week ago to +6000, tied for the 18th-best in the NFL. They’ll have an immediate chance to prove how much that improvement is initially when they open the 2025 season in Philadelphia at the defending Super Bowl LIX champion Eagles on Thursday, Sept. 4.
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