The Dallas Cowboys entered the 2026 NFL Draft knowing that they had some work to do, and they ended up bringing seven new faces to town, with their draft class being highlighted by safety Caleb Downs and defensive end Malachi Lawrence. Now that the draft is in the rearview mirror, the Cowboys’ front office is set to turn its attention towards settling star wide receiver George Pickens‘ contract situation.
Earlier this offseason, Dallas slapped the franchise tag on Pickens, giving it time to negotiate a long-term deal with him. It sounds like the team won’t be negotiating a new contract for Pickens this offseason, though, as it will instead let him play the year out on the franchise tag. Reports ahead of the draft indicated that Pickens was set to sign the franchise tag, but as it turns out, that never ended up happening.
George Pickens Has Still Not Signed His Franchise Tag
In his first season with the Cowboys, Pickens enjoyed a breakout campaign. With fellow star pass catcher CeeDee Lamb in and out of the lineup, Pickens stepped up and filled the void all year long, as he caught 93 passes for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns. All of those figures were career highs for Pickens, and he ended up earning Pro Bowl and All-Pro Second Team honors as a result of his strong play.
Even though Lamb is already tied up to a massive contract himself, Dallas knew it was going to have to break the bank if it wanted to keep Pickens in town this offseason. Applying the franchise tag on him gave the team the opportunity to continue negotiating with him throughout the offseason, but in a surprise turn of events, the team is content with just letting him play on the one-year, $27.3 million franchise tag.
The Cowboys put the ball in Pickens’ court with this unique decision, but it sounded like he was OK with the move, as reports indicated he intended to put pen to paper on this one-year deal. While that may still be the case, Pickens has done nothing of that sort just yet, as he has not signed his franchise tag to this point.
“George Pickens has not yet signed the franchise tag tender with the Cowboys,” Todd Archer of ESPN reported in a post on X.
Is There Reason to Be Concerned About George Pickens?
GettyGeorge Pickens of the Dallas Cowboys
Pickens has always been known to be a bit of a wild card, so it can be labeled as too much of a surprise that this situation has taken another unexpected turn. Right now, there’s not too big a reason to be concerned about Pickens, as this is a rather murky update, but the longer his franchise tag goes unsigned, the bigger an issue the Cowboys may have on their hands.
At some point, Dallas is going to have to decide whether or not it wants to give its star wide receiver a new long-term contract. That doesn’t appear set to happen this offseason, but at the very least, the team wants to keep Pickens around for one more year. While it initially seemed like this was already taken care of, the Cowboys will have to continue monitoring Pickens’ status over the coming days.
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