The Dallas Cowboys are the final team on the NFL docket to get started with their organized team activities–or, OTAs–which began last week and are picking up again this week at The Star. Most teams began their OTAs in May and can hold up to 10 days of the padless practices, but the Cowboys started on June 1, and will hold only six OTAs this spring. This week, it’s Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, with mandatory minicamp following on June 16-18.
And, as is so often the case with offseason workout sessions, the question of whether a star player will attend usually dominates. In the Cowboys’ case, that player is receiver George Pickens, who missed last week’s practices.
But, as coach Brian Schottenheimer pointed out, the Cowboys do not have a problem with Pickens not showing up–the OTAs are voluntary. But Schottenheimer said, clearly, that Pickens is expected to show at minicamp, which is mandatory. “We haven’t discussed that but I expect he will be here,” Schottenheimer said. “He’s in a good spot. But I know he is handling his business and missing his teammates.”
George Pickens Has No Leverage vs. Cowboys
Indeed, Pickens probably would be taking part in the Cowboys offseason program if he had gotten the kind of lengthy contract he had hoped for in free agency after putting up 93 catches for 1,426 yards last season. Instead of working in good faith on a new deal, the Cowboys quashed any notion of negotiations and gave Pickens the franchise tag deal of one year, $27.3 million. Pickens was not obligated to sign that deal–he could have held out for the bigger contract–but he did.
And in doing so, Pickens removed any leverage he had on the Cowboys. As Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer pointed out, Pickens now has little option but so show up for camp or be fined. Once he signed the franchise tag, his ability to effectively hold out was torpedoed.
Cowboys Can Issue Fines
Breer explained that the Cowboys can whack Pickens for fines now if he holds out on mandatory activities. And once the OTAs are done on Thursday, everything is mandatory.
Wrote Breer: “Pickens signed his franchise tender in late April and has skipped the team’s entire offseason program. If he’d planned to miss the minicamp to make a statement, the common-sense route to take would have been to not sign the tender until after the minicamp was complete, because then, Pickens wouldn’t be subject to fines for missing it.
“So, calling it what it is, it wouldn’t make sense to sign that tender and then incur the fines.”
George Pickens Would Lose $108K
Even if Pickens did not get the lengthy deal he wanted, the Cowboys are still on the hook for him at $27.3 million. So the fines would not hurt too much even if he did stay home for minicamp.
But the fines are not nothing. As Spotrac’s Michael Ginnitti wrote on Twitter/X: “NFL players who skip mandatory minicamp workouts are subject to fines of:
- Day 1: $17,986
- Day 2: $35,973
- Day 3: $53,952
- Total: $107,911
As Breer reported, if Pickens was planning to skip minicamp, he would have just withheld his signature until late June and saved $108,000. He didn’t, though. So it’s almost a sure thing that he shows.
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