Maybe it's the whole culture of having to grade or wanting to see graded everything that happens in sports on a day-to-day case-by-case basis.

But I am here to tell you that the George Pickens trade yesterday

should not be viewed in that capacity at all.

Good morning to you. Good.

Thursday morning, I'm Dan Kovachievich of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports.

This is Daily Shot of Steelers.

It comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you're into hockey and or baseball,

I also offer daily shots of penguins and pirates. The other two teams in town that I cover,

and I hope you'll check those out as well. The Steelers, of course, traded pickings to the Cowboys yesterday in exchange for Dallas's

third round pick in the 2026 NFL draft.

There also was a swap of late rounders in 27.

This, predictably, was going to get at least some reaction that would evaluate the exchange

right then and there, just bang, what's sitting there in front of them.

Pickens for a third rounder.

Well, that's bad.

Pickens was drafted in a second round.

Pickens can do incredible things.

But all you could get for him was a third rounder? Seems bad. Leaves a hole in the offense. Seems bad. Might help the Cowboys. Might make us look bad. On all the sports highlights, seems bad. All of that is about as close to immaterial as it gets. Let me take you into the world of what sports executives talk about, but even within that, what they think about and what they discuss among their

peers, the people working under them, and those in the actual industry. I'm not.

I'm sharing with you what they share with me.

The old school way to view a trade any sport is put this over here, put that over there,

and see which one lined up.

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