{"id":775262,"date":"2026-02-25T11:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T11:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/775262\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T11:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T11:19:14","slug":"cowboys-evp-stephen-jones-reveals-dallas-leaning-toward-franchise-tag-for-george-pickens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/775262\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones reveals Dallas \u2018leaning\u2019 toward franchise tag for George Pickens"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said the organization is, \u201cleaning that direction,\u201d when asked if they plan to place their franchise tag on wide receiver George Pickens<\/a>. 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 do so. While it\u2019d be a costly decision, it\u2019ll also ensure the star plays for Dallas next season.<\/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>. Earlier this month, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones discussed the concern that using a franchise tag on Pickens would create issues in the two parties\u2019 relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt crosses your mind,\u201d Jones\u00a0said<\/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

Some fans were concerned about Pickens exhibiting disciplinary issues before the question of a franchise tag emerged. While with the Steelers in the 2024 campaign, George Pickens received two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the Steelers\u2019 44-38 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.<\/p>\n

In the same game, he punted a ball into the stands after scoring a touchdown. In the prior week, Pickens was involved in a scuffle with\u00a0Cleveland Browns\u00a0cornerback\u00a0Greg Newsome II<\/a>\u00a0during a Hail Mary attempt.<\/p>\n

Though Pickens largely avoided on-field issues last season, he reportedly struggled with punctuality at times. Nonetheless, Pickens\u2019 teammates have been vocal about their hopes for the Cowboys to retain Pickens this offseason.<\/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 Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0of re-signing Pickens. \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":"On Tuesday, Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said the organization is, \u201cleaning that direction,\u201d when asked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775263,"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-775262","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\/116131002443587930","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775262","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=775262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}