You know the feeling when you send a trade offer in fantasy football, knowing good and well that your league mate is going to reject it, but then suddenly you see the "trade accepted" notification come through?
It's safe to say Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is probably feeling similarly now that the George Pickens trade has been completed.
Look, it was no secret that the Steelers wanted to get rid of Pickens. His issues had been piling up for quite a while now. The antics had reached a boiling point long ago, but it was just a matter of when the Steelers would make a deal happen.
Sure enough, Jerry Jones took the bait. The Dallas Cowboys sent Pittsburgh a 2026 third-round pick and a late pick swap in 2027 to acquire the veteran wideout entering the final year of his contract.
Experts aren't hiding the fact that the Steelers won the George Pickens trade
Right after the trade went down, ESPN's Seth Walder put together a reaction column with his instant grades.
"For the Steelers, this is good compensation. The league widely knew they wanted to move on from Pickens, and they still got a Day 2 pick back," wrote Walder.
He makes a fantastic point. Everyone knew the Steelers wanted to move on, but the Cowboys still gave up a Day 2 pick for a troubled player in the final year of his deal. This seems more like a rental for Dallas, anyway, as they could get a compensatory pick next year if Pickens signed elsewhere.
Oh, and Walder did give Pittsburgh a higher grade than Dallas, for what it's worth.
Former NFL quarterback Chase Daniel talked about the trade while on the air, too, and agreed that this was a great deal for Pittsburgh. Daniel noted the fact that Pittsburgh now has a whopping 12 draft picks in 2026 and are loaded up to go get a franchise quarterback.
This seems to be a general consensus, right off the bat. The Steelers won the trade, and that probably won't change unless Pickens has a drastic attitude change.