Cowboys Get Ominous Warning About $6.8 Million Receiver Trade

The Dallas Cowboys needed a wide receiver to pair with three-time All-Pro CeeDee Lamb. Now, 11 days after the 2025 NFL Draft, they got one. But this receiver, at least according to one prominent NFL analyst, comes with a warning label.

When the Cowboys oddly failed to select a wide receiver at any point in the draft, owner and de facto general manager Jerry Jones attempted to reassure fans, saying that “the train has not left the station.”

Jones added that moves to upgrade the Dallas receiver room may be coming, but only if “improvement is needed from what we’ve got on campus.”

UDFA Receivers Will Not Solve Problem

Immediately after the draft concluded, the Cowboys dove into the undrafted free agent market and came up with Oregon wideout Treason Holden, who played two years for the Ducks after three at Alabama, as well as Texas Tech pass-catcher Josh Kelly.

Holden hauled in 45 passes for 718 yards and five touchdowns in his 13 Oregon games last year, and was a four-star recruit coming out of high school but the Cowboys appear not to have much confidence in him They offered the 23-year-old zero guaranteed money and a mere $3,000 bonus to sign with the team.

Kelly may have a better chance of catching on. In his one season as a Red Raider, after three at Fresno State and one at Washington State, he became the first Texas Tech receiver with more than 1,000 yards in a season since Antoine Wesley back in 2018.

The Cowboys gave Kelly a $7,500 signing bonus with $60,000 in guaranteed cash. But realistically, neither Holden nor Kelly address the Cowboys wide receiver problem.

George Pickens, a four-year pro and 2022 second round draft pick out of Georgia, does fit that need. At least the Cowboys believe he does. They acquired the 24-year-old Pickens in a deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers reported Wednesday morning. The Cowboys sent their third-round pick in the 2026 draft to Pittsburgh in the trade.

But longtime NFL insider Albert Breer — now with NBC Sports Boston and formerly of the NFL Network and Sports Illustrated Monday Morning Quarterback — warned the Cowboys to “be careful” with their new receiver, in a post shortly after the trade became public.

What Breer’s Warning May Mean

Breer cautioned Cowboys first-year coach Brian Schottenheimer to “be careful with the receiver Mike Tomlin is done with,” referring to the Steelers coach. But what did he mean by that?

Breer may have been referring to Pickens’ contract situation. The receiver is in the final year of his four-season, $6.8 million rookie deal, and may want to hold off in an attempt to increase his market value rather than sign an extension in Dallas.

If Pickens leaves in 2026, the Cowboys will have sacrificed a valuable third-round draft pick for a single year of a WR2.

More ominously, Boston-based Breer may be referring specifically to Antonio Brown, who posted seven 1,000-plus yardage seasons in his nine years with the Steelers before being traded away largely due to a series of personality issues — including at one point a physical confrontation with Pittsburgh’s future Hall of Fame quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

Tomlin was “done with” Brown.

He dealt the volatile receiver to the Raiders where Brown engaged in such an insufferable series of conflicts with coaches and executives that the team then based in Oakland cut him before he played a game. The New England Patriots picked him up to pair with another legendary quarterback, Tom Brady.

Brown played one game for the defending Super Bowl champs in 2019, catching a touchdown pass from Brady. But allegations of repeated sexual misconduct then surfaced and the Patriots released Brown after just 13 days.

While Pickens has not faced allegations as serious as those, or engaged in behavior on quite the level of Brown’s, he has accrued a series of incidents mainly involving his failure to control his temper on the field, dating back to his college career when he got in an end-zone fight with Georgia Tech cornerback Tre Swilling.