{"id":728503,"date":"2026-02-04T09:58:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/728503\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T09:58:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:58:31","slug":"cowboys-george-pickens-knows-his-price-tag-went-up-looking-for-ultimate-best-deal-for-all-parties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/728503\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys’ George Pickens knows his price tag ‘went up,’ looking for ‘ultimate best deal’ for all parties"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his first — and so far only — season with the Dallas Cowboys, George Pickens<\/a> was at his best statistically across the board.<\/p>\n

His 93 receptions, 1,429 receiving yards and nine touchdown catches were all career bests by sizable margins. Thus, the impending free-agent wide receiver readily admits he’d love to stay put with the Cowboys, but insists it’s not completely in his control.<\/p>\n

“I would love to,” Pickens said Monday when asked if he’d like to remain with the team for the long term, via the team website’s Tommy Yarrish<\/a>. “But when you can’t control it, you kind of just hope for the best.”<\/p>\n

The best for Pickens, speaking from his first Pro Bowl Games appearance, is likely to be a very lucrative long-term deal with the Cowboys or another suitor, if Dallas doesn’t franchise tag him.<\/p>\n

A 2022 NFL Draft second-round selection of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pickens was traded<\/a> to the Cowboys in the 2025 offseason and made a $3.65 million base salary in the final year of his rookie contract. Pickens will command upwards of $20 million a year moving forward with a franchise tag estimate<\/a> to guarantee him $28 million-plus.<\/p>\n

With fellow Cowboys Pro Bowl wideout CeeDee Lamb<\/a> due $25 million in base salary in 2026 and quarterback Dak Prescott<\/a>, offensive lineman Tyler Smith<\/a>, defensive tackle Kenny Clark<\/a> and others also carrying hefty cap hits<\/a>, the Cowboys will have to crunch the numbers.<\/p>\n

What is Pickens looking for? Well, right now he’s hoping for the optimum for everyone involved and saying all the right things.<\/p>\n

“Just the ultimate best deal when it helps everybody,” he said. “If it’s the best thing for both parties, then I’m willing to do anything. But like I said, I can’t control it, so I just kind of chill.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his first — and so far only — season with the Dallas Cowboys, George Pickens was at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[1227,257,7,467,88,6,609],"class_list":{"0":"post-728503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-around-the-nfl","9":"tag-dallas-cowboys","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-george-pickens","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-no-minute"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116011775335418626","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}