Feb. 8, 2026, 4:20 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
The Dallas Cowboys<\/a> have reportedly made a major decision regarding one of their top pass catchers \u2014 former Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> wide receiver George Pickens.<\/p>\n Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Cowboys are expected to place a franchise tag on Pickens, who was set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2026.<\/p>\n Additionally, Schefter reported that the projected one-year, full guaranteed franchise tag price would be around $28 million for Pickens.<\/p>\n Pickens was electric in his debut season with the Cowboys, catching 93 passes for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns in 17 games in 2025. He made his first Pro Bowl and was named Second-Team All-Pro for his stellar production.<\/p>\n It remains to be seen if Pickens will play under the franchise tag without a long-term extension in place, but Dallas clearly isn’t giving up on the talented wideout without a fight.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n For up-to-date\u00a0Steelers<\/a>\u00a0coverage, including any offseason moves, follow us on X\u00a0@TheSteelersWire<\/a>\u00a0and give our\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0a like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 8, 2026, 4:20 p.m. ET The Dallas Cowboys have reportedly made a major decision regarding one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[95878,230,229,257,2461,7,6,96718,96719,95882,95892,95893,96253,95888,95895,95906,96720,96071,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-739091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-cowboys","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys","12":"tag-dallascowboys","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflsteelers","16":"tag-sstsnsteelers","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagespn-inc","19":"tag-tagfacebook","20":"tag-taggeorge-pickens","21":"tag-tagnfl","22":"tag-tagnfl-hub","23":"tag-tagoverall-positive","24":"tag-tagpittsburgh-steelers","25":"tag-tagsmg-timely","26":"tag-tagsports-news","27":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116037621502143157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739091","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=739091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}