{"id":773106,"date":"2026-02-24T11:45:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/773106\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:45:16","slug":"skip-bayless-warns-cowboys-not-to-use-franchise-tag-on-george-pickens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/773106\/","title":{"rendered":"Skip Bayless warns Cowboys not to use franchise tag on George Pickens"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Cowboys are reportedly \u201cleaning\u201d toward using their franchise tag on wide receiver George Pickens<\/a>. During an appearance on The Arena: Gridiron, Skip Bayless warned the Cowboys against investing so heavily in Pickens\u2019 future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, George Pickens, you can\u2019t trust him to be a winning football player, to be a leader of your team,\u201d Bayless said<\/a>. \u201cHe makes some winning plays, but then you look at the end of the day and you say we\u2019re 7-9-1. I don\u2019t think the rest of the team loved it that he was constantly missing or late to meetings, because that\u2019s just who he is. That\u2019s why Mike Tomlin said no to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he were a solid citizen, I\u2019d be saying, \u2018No, you\u2019ve got to go with him,\u2019 because you could make the case he\u2019s even better than CeeDee Lamb<\/a>. But, CeeDee is a leader and a solid citizen and a baller and a playmaker, and I got that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pickens was traded to the Cowboys last offseason after spending the first three seasons of his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was spectacular in his debut campaign with the Cowboys, recording 93 catches for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns this past season.<\/p>\n

Pickens\u2019 1,429 receiving yards were the third-most in the\u00a0NFL<\/a>. Despite Pickens\u2019 undeniable success, the former Georgia standout\u2019s history of disciplinary issues concerns Bayless.<\/p>\n

In the 2024 campaign, George Pickens received two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the Steelers\u2019 44-38 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. In the same game, he punted a ball into the stands after scoring a touchdown.<\/p>\n

In the prior week, Pickens was involved in a scuffle with\u00a0Cleveland Browns\u00a0cornerback\u00a0Greg Newsome II<\/a>\u00a0during a Hail Mary attempt. Pickens has also reportedly had issues with his punctuality.<\/p>\n

Any off-the-field issues didn\u2019t slow Pickens down on the gridiron this past season. The Cowboys have until March 3 to use their franchise tag on Pickens.<\/p>\n

The organization would owe Pickens approximately $28 million next season if they opt to use their franchise tag on him. While it\u2019d be a costly decision, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones seems open to the idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt crosses your mind,\u201d Jones said<\/a>, per ESPN. \u201cI mean, a lot of the guys we\u2019ve tagged participated in everything,\u00a0Dak [Prescott] leading the way. He played under two of them. He never missed anything. Hopefully, that\u2019ll be the case here.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 In the past, we\u2019ve done deals with top players and it\u2019s happened in a hurry\u2026 But at the end of the day, every agent\u2019s different, what they\u2019re trying to accomplish, the way they look at their strategy and what they\u2019re about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Cowboys are reportedly \u201cleaning\u201d toward using their franchise tag on wide receiver George Pickens. During an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773107,"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-773106","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\/116125442385142137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773106","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=773106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}