To suggest George Pickens’ breakout as a receiver is a boost to the Dallas Cowboys running game isn’t very intuitive or even logical statement at face value. Pickens’ career rushing total of 36 yards isn’t much to write home about or consequential enough to keep opposing coordinators up at night. Some receivers are also rushing threats and some just aren’t. Pickens is the latter.
What Pickens does is torment secondaries. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound field-stretcher has made a reputation posterizing opponents. His sideline special awareness combined with his natural ball skills and highpoint ability make him a downfield weapon who teams scheme for. Until Sunday night against Green Bay, the league hadn’t seen him be that player since joining the Cowboys. Eight receptions, 134 yards and two touchdowns later and everyone’s taken notice.
The connection to the ground game is simple: as teams scheme to stop Pickens and the big play potential he carries, they move resources off the line of scrimmage and back into the secondary. In a pick-your-own-poison scenario, teams will choose to stop the big play nine out of ten times. It’s that gravity Pickens demands that assists the running game and that same gravity that keeps the Cowboys offense afloat while CeeDee Lamb is sidelined.
Prior to Week 4 Sumer Sports calculated the Cowboys’ light box percentage was just 59.7% This was good enough for 19th in the NFL and stood to lose status with Lamb out. Pickens’ breakout ensured there would be no sudden personnel increase in the box anytime soon.
This impact to the box count is an important byproduct of his breakout because prior to Sunday the Cowboys led the NFL in light box rushing EPA. It’s situations such as these Javonte Williams’ feasts as the Cowboys’ offense hums at maximum efficiency.
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This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: How Cowboys finding WR1A is boosting their running game
Reporting by Reid D Hanson, Cowboys Wire / Cowboys Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
