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George Pickens #3 of the Dallas Cowboys
The deadline for the Dallas Cowboys to place the franchise tag on star receiver George Pickens as he heads into free agency is looming, with the team able to place Pickens under a one-year, $29 million contract designation any time up until March 3. The expectation is that the Cowboys will tag Pickens.
What happens from there is anyone’s guess. The Cowboys and Pickens can still negotiate a long-term deal, which is obviously what Pickens would like to see happen after producing a breakout year in 2025, one in which his 1,429 yards were not only a career high but rated third in the league last year, and fourth all-time in Cowboys single-season history.
But that would get very expensive for the Cowboys very quickly, and Dallas would rather put off committing to a long-term deal as long as the team could do so. Signing a long-term deal would give the Cowboys the advantage of tinkering with Pickens’ up-front salary to lower the one-year cost, but the team would still be on the hook for the long term.
Cowboys Want George Pickens Doing Offseason Work
While all that has to be worked out in the coming months–maybe weeks if things go especially well–the Cowboys will be conducting their usual business, in free agency and going forward in the draft. After that, they’ll start holding OTAs and minicamps. The question then will be, does Pickens show up?
He will technically be under contract, except that he might not be very happy about that. Team vice president Stephen Jones, though, says it does not matter if Pickens is happy, he is expected to show up either way.
Jones told the Dallas Morning News, “We always want guys here. We’ve franchised players before, obviously we want him here working with the team. It will work itself out in the coming weeks.”
Cowboys’ Past Negotiations Have Been Troublesome
Certainly, that’s the hope. The Cowboys’ recent history with its own free agents has not been great, as the team tends to drag out negotiations until late in the process, as with CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott, who were signed just before the start of the 2024 season, and with Micah Parsons who was traded in late August last year after no deal was reached.
It will be different with Pickens and the franchise tag, because the Cowboys and Pickens will have a July 15 deadline to come up with a long-term deal. That gives the Cowboys a bit of leverage–if Dallas simply waits out Pickens without giving him a new deal, he will have little choice but to play on the $29 million tag number for this year.
It won’t be a process that pushes deep into training camp–though it will be an issue for OTAs and minicamp.
Dak Prescott Advocated for Keeping George Pickens
There has been ample support from within the Cowboys for the team to give Pickens a long-term deal and keep everyone happy. Pickens’ market value, according to Spotrac, is about $30.6 million per year, and $122 million over four years, though that number could be on the rise as other receivers sign contracts.
Prescott, for one, has been vocal about keeping Pickens, even suggesting that he would get involved in brokering a deal.
“Whichever way they do it, he’s an important piece of this offense, and an important piece of what we’re trying to do. So, leave it to those guys but obviously, if I need to get involved, I have said it before, I will,” Prescott said earlier this month.
Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney
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