{"id":736912,"date":"2026-02-08T01:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T01:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/736912\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T01:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T01:08:17","slug":"report-dallas-cowboys-expected-to-place-franchise-tag-on-george-pickens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/736912\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Dallas Cowboys expected to place franchise tag on George Pickens"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Cowboys are expected to place the franchise tag on George Pickens<\/a>, ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter reported<\/a>. He is due to hit free agency this offseason.<\/p>\n

Pickens played the last year of his rookie contract with the Cowboys this past season after coming over in a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He had a huge season, leading Dallas with 93 receptions for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns to earn a Second Team All-Pro selection.<\/p>\n

The franchise tag comes at a projected cost of a fully guaranteed $28 million for one year, Schefter reported. Dallas can place the tag between Feb. 17 and March 3. The tag can either be a way to start negotiations about a new contract \u2013 Pickens would be able to shed the tag and sign a deal \u2013 or limit his options in free agency.<\/p>\n

Throughout the offseason, ownership expressed its desire to get a deal together. That includes owner Jerry Jones, who said he\u2019d like to see Pickens stay in Dallas for the forseeable future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m talking to Geroge all the time by virtue of my excitement for him,\u201d Jones said, via DallasCowboys.com\u2019s Tommy Yarrish<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s better than, as far as what he contributed to our team, showing the potential that he could contribute. I\u2019m looking forward to getting things worked out so George can be a Cowboy a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple Cowboys support keeping George Pickens<\/p>\n

George Pickens\u2019 future has been a major point of conversation throughout this week at both the Pro Bowl and on Radio Row ahead of Super Bowl LX. He formed quite the duo with CeeDee Lamb<\/a> with the Cowboys in 2025. Keeping that together would provide important continuity for Dak Prescott<\/a> and the rest of the offense.<\/p>\n

In fact, Lamb went so far as to say he\u2019d consider restructuring his contract<\/a> to bring Pickens back, if it came down to it. That speaks to the former Georgia<\/a> star\u2019s importance to the Cowboys.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, if it\u2019s necessary. Honestly,\u201d\u00a0Lamb said<\/a>\u00a0when asked if he\u2019d be willing to defer money or restructure. \u201cI\u2019m pretty good, but I know he\u2019s going to get every penny he deserves here in Dallas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prescott was also part of the chorus of voices that spoke<\/a> in favor of keeping Pickens with the Cowboys. He said while he planned to leave it to the front office to decide the next steps, he was willing to step in, if asked to give his opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter, whichever way that they got to do it, he\u2019s an important piece of this offense, an important piece of what we\u2019re trying to do. I\u2019ll leave it to those guys,\u201d Prescott\u00a0said, per\u00a0The Athletic\u2018s Jon Machota<\/a>. \u201cObviously if I need to get involved, I\u2019ve said it before, I will. But (I\u2019m) confident in (Cowboys owner Jerry Jones) and everybody who makes those decisions and how much he means to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Cowboys are expected to place the franchise tag on George Pickens, ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter reported. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,2461,7,12819,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-736912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-cowboys","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-dallascowboys","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-george-pickens-19-hoover","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116032340569721651","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736912","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=736912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}