In the first week of George Pickens' second season with the Cowboys, he produced just 5.8 PPR points. It’s an output that would’ve been the lowest of any non-week 18 game last season. Everything points to this underwhelming week being the result of unfortunate offensive environment volatility, rather than a cause for concern moving forward.
2026 Fantasy Football Impact: Low Yardage, Not Low Usage
Pickens was still the team's second-leading target earner with a 17.6% target share that only trailed CeeDee Lamb, who was responsible for a 23.5% share leading to 15.4 PPR points of his own.
Lamb is healthy coming into the season and hopeful to remain that way throughout, unlike last year. That’s one of the few reasons to believe Pickens won’t match the career-high 16.6 PPR points per game he set last season.
Last season, Pickens held a 22.0% target share which on a per-game average was second to Lamb, but produced the most yards and the highest PPR points.
With the passing offense likely to top 175 passing yards moving forward, Pickens will have an immediate opportunity to rebound. That was Prescott’s lowest total in games where he played at least 80% of the snaps since Week 15 of the 2023 season.
The next chance will be at home against the Commanders in Week 2.
