George Pickens fires back at criticism over his effort: 'Starting to get kinda old'

George Pickens started the season out red hot, mainly when CeeDee Lamb went down with an injury. His play carried the Dallas Cowboys for a period of time. But he has since then cooled off and even been on the receiving end of some criticism from the outside. The noise reached its peak following the Thursday Night Football loss to the Detroit Lions.

Richard Sherman put Pickens on blast during the postgame show for his effort. Now, a few weeks later, Pickens admitted everything is getting “kinda old.” His main goal is to go out there and help the Cowboys win games on a weekly basis.

“Everybody has a job to do,” Pickens said Wednesday via The Athletic‘s Jon Machota. “Some people’s job is to do that, tear down character, see how many clicks they can get. I’m just here to play football and help the team. … It’s starting to get kinda old.”

Between the Lions and Vikings games, both in primetime, Pickens has caught eight passes for 70 yards and no touchdowns. It’s now three straight games without a score for the wide receiver after getting eight in the first 11.

Pickens is back on the field this upcoming Sunday as playoff hopes in Dallas are all but gone. The Los Angeles Chargers come to town for a noon CT kickoff from AT&T Stadium.

George Pickens criticism stems from Richard Sherman

Sherman was the one who started most of this on Pickens. And the criticism had little to nothing to do with the lack of stats being put up. Instead, Sherman analyzed the effort from Pickens during the Lions game in Detroit.

“The big story here is George Pickens,” Sherman said. “George Pickens throughout the game, especially late in the game just looked uninterested. Uninterested in playing football. That’s what you can’t have. If you’re gonna be a superstar, if you want to be the best receiver in the NFL, you can’t ever be disengaged. It doesn’t matter if the game’s going your way or not going your way.

“You can’t just disappear in these games or else you’re not gonna have impact. … You’re the guy, CeeDee Lamb is not in this game, he’s out. … You can’t be the guy and half-ass it. I’m sorry. … It’s unacceptable, and if you’re the Dallas Cowboys, and you’re looking at him and you’re looking to pay him big time receiver money, $40M, you gotta look at this tape and say, hey is this a guy we can trust paying $40M to show up regardless of circumstance, and I don’t know.”

Pickens later responded via social media but quickly took the post down. Either way, an important stretch is upcoming for Pickens as he is a few weeks away from officially becoming a free agent.