{"id":778331,"date":"2026-02-26T20:40:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/778331\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T20:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:40:18","slug":"dallas-cowboys-hc-addresses-wr-george-pickens-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/778331\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys HC Addresses WR George Pickens\u2019 Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

It wouldn’t be a Dallas Cowboys<\/a> offseason without a high-profile contract dispute.<\/p>\n

To be fair, there isn’t a dispute in Dallas quite yet. But all the ingredients are in place: Jerry Jones, a stubborn owner, and George Pickens, an outspoken wide receiver.<\/p>\n

Dallas traded for Pickens<\/a>, 24, in May 2025. The Pittsburgh Steelers sent Pickens and a 2027 sixth-round pick to Dallas in exchange for a Cowboys 2026 third-round draft pick and 2027 fifth-round pick. At the time of the trade, Pickens was entering the final year of his rookie contract. Pittsburgh drafted Pickens out of Georgia in the second round of the 2022 NFL<\/a> Draft.<\/p>\n

It was a low-risk move for the Cowboys because they weren’t committed to Pickens beyond 2025, but Pickens maximized his prove-it year with 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns on 93 catches, which puts Dallas in a predicament now.<\/p>\n

\"NFL<\/p>\n

Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer was asked whether he expects Pickens to be a Cowboy long-term. “I hope,” Schottenheimer told reporters<\/a> at the 2026 NFL Combine in Indianapolis. “I’ve been around George from the time he got here, from the time he came in, and I say this respectfully: I kicked his ass in shooting free throws in my office. He might not remember it that way. I knew this guy was a competitor, and he loves football. So, I hope so.”<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, according to NFL.com’s Judy Battista<\/a>, Cowboys COO and co-owner Stephen Jones told reporters<\/a> that the team was “leaning toward” using the franchise tag on Pickens. “We’ll finalize that here in the coming week or 10 days, then we’ll go from there,” Jones said. The deadline to use the franchise or transition tag is March 3 at 4 p.m. EST. The franchise tag for wide receivers is set for $28.8 million in 2026.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys can tag Pickens, but the story wouldn’t end there. The question would become whether he’ll play on it. Pickens has the same agent, David Mulugheta, as former Dallas pass rusher Micah Parsons. Jerry Jones reportedly refused to negotiate<\/a> in good faith with Mulugheta while acrimoniously trying to extend Parsons<\/a> last offseason. Ultimately, Parsons was traded to Green Bay<\/a> last August.<\/p>\n

“David Mulugheta does not like the tag,” NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport told 105.3 The Fan<\/a>. “He is not a fan. He’s had guys who have been on the tag; he does not like. I don’t know what George Pickens is gonna do. I just know, historically, you may not see him for a bit. You want him for the offseason program? Good luck. Because, generally, those guys don’t sign in March. They sign in late August, if they sign in late August, because he doesn’t have to. He’s just gotta sign by Week 8 or whatever it is.”<\/p>\n

Rapoport added, “If you tag Pickens and don’t do a [long-term] deal, it’s going to be a while, and it’s going to be a saga.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wouldn’t be a Dallas Cowboys offseason without a high-profile contract dispute. To be fair, there isn’t a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[2886,230,229,257,2461,7,467,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-778331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-brian-schottenheimer","9":"tag-cowboys","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys","12":"tag-dallascowboys","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-george-pickens","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116138871749971838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778331","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=778331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}