Late in the day on a Tuesday, starting at 3 p.m. local time this Tuesday for those of you wanting to know, the Cowboys can place a franchise tag on star wide receiver George Pickens.
The franchise is expected to place the tag on Pickens to maintain team control of the talented receiver who had one of those career years entering a contract season. The deadline to tag Pickens is 3 p.m. March 3 Dallas time. Once he’s franchised, Pickens has until July 15 to sign a contract extension.
Now comes the hard part: Signing Pickens to a long-term deal in a timely fashion to prevent unnecessary issues heading into the season.
And players on this Cowboys’ team are watching the front office. CeeDee Lamb, a man who held out in 2024 until he got his own contract extension, said he was upset when Micah Parsons was traded last year.
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Last year, Parsons was the star pass rusher who conducted a hold-in as contract talks dragged on, which eventually led to him asking for a trade that was granted. Never mind that Jerry Jones, the team owner and general manager, wanted an oral agreement validated by an agent he didn’t want to speak with.
Lamb said he plans to speak with the front office about getting a Pickens deal done. Dak Prescott, another man with his own prolonged contract talks, also has bullet points for the front office.
It’s really not the front office here when it comes to these contract talks.
It’s Jerry Jones.
So did Jones learn anything from the Parsons talks that he can take into the Pickens contract negotiations?
“I didn’t necessarily learn,” Jones said just before Super Bowl LX. “I say that because hopefully you learn something all the way. But what I would say is that the reason those talks didn’t work was not the talks or the personalities or not talking to the agent. The reason it didn’t work is Micah got priced away from us. It was just worth more to us to have the picks than to have him. I’m serious.”
The Cowboys got two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark from Green Bay for Parsons. Parsons signed a four-year, $188 million deal with Green Bay, making that contract one of the highest for a non-quarterback in league history.
One of those picks the Cowboys acquired was used to get Quinnen Williams, another talented defensive tackle, in a trade with the Jets.
So in Jones’ mind, the Parsons trade is working.
When it comes to Pickens, franchising him is just the start of what could be a long offseason of drama, but this can be avoided.
For one thing, franchising Pickens isn’t bringing him to the team facility anytime soon. When he gets his deal done, he’ll be in attendance. Similar to how Lamb handled things, even the now-retired Zack Martin acted this way when he wanted some more money added to his contract. Show up when the money’s right.
Pickens’ agents want to start contract talks at the combine, which starts next week in Indianapolis. Hopefully, contract talks will go smoothly for both sides because if you get Pickens into the offseason program and training camp on time, then you begin Year 2 of Brian Schottenheimer’s tenure on the right path.
If you worry about whether Pickens and Lamb can command high salaries on the same team, Jones said: “Absolutely. A lot of the reasons that I did some of the things that I did last year was to retain some players that if it would have gone in a different direction, I couldn’t have retained.”
When it comes to the money, the Cowboys can create at least $80 million in cap space with the restructure of four players and with some cuts, and more restructures, push those numbers to nearly $100 million.
The Bengals have two receivers, JaMarr Chase and Tee Higgins, signed to contracts over $100 million each. The Lions have two receivers, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams, each averaging over $30 million.
It can be done.
If you’re worried about Pickens being late to meetings, missing a team bus and those types of disciplinary things, while it’s an annoyance you wish the team didn’t have to go through, Jones feels you. But…
“I’ve missed a few myself,” he jokes. “Something came up.”
Jones said as long as Pickens cares about the team, he believes he does, along with his teammates, being late to meetings and whatnot, “that’s forgivable.”
With that out of the way, all that’s needed is to get the franchise tag on Pickens, projected at $28 million, and signed long-term.
Just have to do it in a timely fashion because the team is watching.
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