There has been a lot of happy talk coming out of Oxnard in recent weeks as the Dallas Cowboys have plowed forward on their 2026 training camp. The team is brazenly talking about the Super Bowl despite coming off of back-to-back seven-win seasons, thanks to a rebuilt defense and an offense that still is headed by Dak Prescott, with CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens back as the start receivers.
It’s a different MO for camp than many would have predicted back in late February, when the Cowboys stuck the franchise tag on Pickens after a brilliant season in which he went for 93 catches and 1,429 yards, both career highs as he headed into free agency.
But rather than a drawn-out negotiation on a new long-term deal, the Cowboys cut off Pickens’ options pretty quickly and made clear that they would give him the one-year franchise tag, below market value at $27.3 million, and that his options were to hold out or sign it. After some controversy and speculation, Pickens signed it just ahead of the NFL draft in April.
George Pickens Went Along With Cowboys Franchise Tag
Pickens has downplayed his disappointment in the Cowboys’ approach, though he did stay away from voluntary OTAs in June as a signal that he was not exactly pleased with the tag. Now, though, the focus will be what Pickens does here in 2026 and whether he can come close to repeating what he did in 2025–and what that will mean when he hits free agency yet again next winter.
Pickens has talked openly about how much he enjoys being in Dallas. Will it be a reciprocal feeling?
The Cowboys have indicated they will be willing to keep Pickens beyond this season, though it would get especially expensive to keep him and Lamb, who is on a contract that pays him an AAV of $34 million. But there is still another very unpopular option: Putting the franchise tag on Pickens again.
Cowboys Could Use Tag Again in 2027
That was floated on Wednesday by ESPN Cowboys beat writer Todd Archer, speaking on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas from Oxnard. That number would be a one-year deal at $33 million.
Said Archer: “They could franchise tag him again and we could go through the whole thing all over again.”
That would likely not go over well with Pickens, though, who was mostly a good and understanding soldier through the franchise tag process this year, but might not be so understanding if the Cowboys try it again (they can only tag him twice under NFL rules). At that point, the fears of this year’s offseason–an ugly holdout and a war of words with Jerry Jones, as we saw with Micah Parsons in 2025–could come to pass.
Still Hope on Keeping George Pickens
But Archer does hold out hope that the Cowboys did enough this offseason, most notably getting a new deal for Quinnen Williams, to keep Pickens going forward, as long as Pickens is not pushing the market into the $40 million-plus range.
Archer said: “I do think there is an opportunity to keep him beyond this year. Entering training camp I was probably a little less likely to think that would be the case than I am now, based on the things you are hearing. The Quinnen Williams deal helps. I think it is going to get them about $13 million in cap space this year and they’ll be able to restructure next year, the high cap number he will have, and keep pushing money out into the future. But I think there’s a possibility of keeping him.
“But we know what it is going to come down to. Is the first number, is it gonna start with a four or is it gonna start with a three? Then the Cowboys are going to have to ask themselves a question, is that going to be worth it?”
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