Since George Pickens was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers, I was never a huge fan of him for fantasy football. Just because a player is a good NFL talent does not always mean they’re going to translate as well to fantasy football production.
It’s not that Pickens has been a bad fantasy football option, but what makes a player a good or bad pick is their ADP. For years, it felt like where you had to draft Pickens was much too high.
2025 is where I was completely wrong in avoiding Pickens. Last year was the breakout for Pickens as he had 17.2 PPG in a PPR format. Before that, Pickens never even had a season with 12.5 PPG or more. Some could argue that regression is coming, but the situation is now different.
As someone who plays in a PPR format, that’s a big reason why I was never a fan of Pickens. Despite racking up solid yardage totals, Pickens never had more than 65 catches in a year before 2025.
During that 2025 season, which was the first season Pickens played for the Dallas Cowboys, he had 93 catches, 137 targets, 1,429 yards, and nine touchdowns.
Part of this big year was that although CeeDee Lamb played in 14 games, he went down early in the year due to an ankle injury.
Lamb had been a fantasy football star up to that point with at least 17 PPG from 2022 to 2024. Last year Lamb had just 14.3 PPG.