Recent reports have suggested that the Dallas Cowboys aren’t interested in trading George Pickens off the franchise tag.

Along with those reports, Jerry and Stephen Jones have both made it clear they intend on keeping Pickens around for the long haul, something we believe is a mistake.

However, Essentially Sports’ Tony Pauline is reporting that the Cowboys trading the mercurial wideout is still on the table, which is good news because Dallas should be more concerned about spending money on the defense rather than Pickens.

“New reports from the combine suggest that the Cowboys could put the franchise tag on Pickens, then trade him,” Pauline wrote. “Pickens was officially franchise-tagged on Friday afternoon, and the team will pay him $27.3 million for the 2026 season. However, his long-term future with the team still remains undecided, and a trade possibility still exists before the team hits the July 15 deadline.”

While trading Pickens might still be an option for Dallas, the team will need suitors in order to move him.

But Pauline adds that he has not heard of a single team with interest in trading for Pickens.

“For now, I was not informed of any teams targeting Pickens for a trade,” Pauline said.

We have maintained for awhile now that the Cowboys should not make a long-term commitment to Pickens and that the team should trade him if he gets tagged, partly because the Cowboys should be using most of their resources on the defense.

And, we were even open to the Cowboys simply letting Pickens walk for the exact reason Pauline just reported about: a lack of interest from teams around the NFL, which could lead to Dallas being stuck.

Pickens has been nothing short of a bad boy during his career, with the veteran wide receiver having several behavioral issues with the Pittsburgh Steelers, which is why they traded him to the Cowboys in the first place.

We saw some of those issues creep up last season, when Pickens was benched for missing a team bus and had questions over his effort in some games.

Those issues could only get worse if Pickens gets the bag — and teams around the league know this, so it’s no surprise they are weary of trading for him.

Pickens is on the non-exclusive franchise tag, so other teams can make him an offer sheet, but if the Cowboys don’t match, the acquiring team would have to give up two first-round picks and nobody is going to do that.

Another problem with tagging Pickens is it could lead to a prolonged holdout. We have already heard from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport that Pickens isn’t likely to report until he gets a long-term deal, so that’s already coming to fruition.

If the Cowboys can’t get a long-term deal done with Pickens, they will be stuck with a holdout who they can’t unload, and even if Pickens ends up playing on the tag, he’s going to be disgruntled, which will almost certainly lead to him being a problem child in Dallas.

As things stand now, this decision with Pickens is far more likely to blow up in Dallas’ face than not.

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