{"id":781894,"date":"2026-02-28T09:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T09:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/781894\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T09:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T09:48:21","slug":"stephen-jones-addresses-possibility-of-george-pickens-contract-extension-after-franchise-tag-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/781894\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Jones addresses possibility of George Pickens contract extension after franchise tag"},"content":{"rendered":"

As expected, the Dallas Cowboys placed the franchise tag<\/a> on George Pickens<\/a> on Friday \u2013 just a few days before the deadline. That means the franchise is in position to keep him in town after a huge 2025 season, which ended with a Pro Bowl appearance.<\/p>\n

However, even though the Cowboys used the tag, there\u2019s still the possibility they extend Pickens. Executive vice president Stephen Jones said the franchise tag is just one part of the plan to ensure he remains in Dallas for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

With the tag, Pickens is in line to make $27.3 million in 2025, according to numbers released by the NFL<\/a> on Friday. The sense was he was seeking $30 million<\/a> if he hit the open market. But while the tag isn\u2019t necessarily a popular decision among players, Jones said it still works out financially. From here, the door is wide open for a long-term deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Jones said on The Rich Eisen Show<\/a> when asked if the tag is the start of more talks with Pickens. \u201cWe\u2019re not putting any time frame on this. The most important thing is, live in the present.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just love that George is going to be back. Jerry had a great visit with him yesterday. He was fired up that he wasn\u2019t going to be going anywhere. We all understand too, economically, guys probably would prefer a long-term deal. But the franchise tag, economically, is not bad either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Jones: George Pickens \u2018fired up\u2019 to stay with Cowboys<\/p>\n

After coming over via trade from the Pittsburgh Steelers, George Pickens put up the best numbers of his career and played a big role in CeeDee Lamb\u2019s<\/a> absence due to injury. He totaled 93 receptions for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns to earn a Second Team All-Pro selection, in addition to his Pro Bowl berth.<\/p>\n

Pickens\u2019 career year came in the final year of his rookie deal, signed with Pittsburgh when the Steelers drafted him out of Georgia<\/a> in 2022. Stephen Jones said Pickens expressed his excitement to remain in Dallas in 2026, and the Cowboys felt the same way about locking him in for at least another year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very fired up about his future with us,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe felt like he wanted to be in Dallas. He certainly said that to Jerry yesterday. Jerry just said he was on Cloud 9 that he was going to be a Cowboy again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As expected, the Dallas Cowboys placed the franchise tag on George Pickens on Friday \u2013 just a few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781591,"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-781894","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\/116147631489808465","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781894","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=781894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}