Speaking on Monday afternoon at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Downtown Indianapolis, Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones confirmed that the team is looking at using the franchise tag on wide receiver George Pickens.
“We’re leaning toward the franchise tag,” Jones said. “We’ll finalize that over the next week or 10 days, and then we’ll go from there.”
The franchise tag, which was introduced to the NFL in 1993, allows a team to place a one-year contract on an impending free agent that would give the player near-top-of-the-market money. For the player, it allows them to cash in, although without the long-term security of a multi-year extension. For teams, it allows for them to retain talent without the future financial guarantee.
For Pickens, the franchise tag has long been seen as the likely scenario after his first season in Dallas saw him lead the team with 93 receptions for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns. After being traded from the Pittsburgh Steelers, questions existed over whether Pickens would be able to calm off-the-field maturity concerns and see it manifest with on-the-field production. While the 24-year-old still missed meetings and a game-night curfew in Las Vegas, the Cowboys were overwhelmingly pleased with the return on the blockbuster trade they made to acquire him.
However, they seem content with letting things ride out without much long-term security.
“It’s just going to take time,” Jones said. “We want Pickens here. We think the world of him. We want him here, love him. And I think he wants to be here, so all of that’s a plus ... I wouldn’t put any timeframe [on a long-term deal getting done]. Once you have the tag, you have the tag, and George is going to be here. That’s where we are.”
The tag number for Pickens in 2026 is expected to come in around $28 million for the one season. His representation and the team would have until July 15 to work out a long-term deal or be right back in the same situation next offseason. Until then, Pickens could not show up for offseason team activities such as minicamp and voluntary workouts. That possibility is something that has been discussed in the Cowboys front office.
“It crosses your mind,” Jones said. “A lot of guys that we’ve tagged participated in everything, Dak leading the way. He’s been under two of them [in 2020 and 2021] and he never missed anything. Hopefully, that’s the case here.”
The Cowboys are expected to meet with Pickens’ representation this week, led by Trevon Smith and David Mulugheta of Athletes First, while in Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine. While Jones did not want to speculate on what direction those talks will go, he does still expect to place the tag on Pickens in the coming days.
“We know we’ll have George back,” Jones said. “We’ve had people play under the tag, and we’ve made deals with people that have a tag. It could go either way. We’ll just continue really analyzing the situation to see what’s next.”
Is it the right move?
The Cowboys have long been criticized for taking too long to sign their star players to extensions. In each of the last three training camps, the team has had a player either hold out (Zack Martin in 2023, CeeDee Lamb in 2024) or hold in (Micah Parsons in 2025). In 2024, Dak Prescott’s contract wasn’t put to paper until the morning of the season opener.
The question that will have to be answered, though: Is Pickens worthy of top-of-the-market receiver money? The answer to that question is multi-layered. While he did have a phenomenal 2025 campaign, it is just one season of elite production in Dallas. His three previous seasons in Pittsburgh were no slouch either, as his combined total receiving yardage through four years is eighth across the NFL in that same time-span. That statistic alone should give him a per-year total that ranks around the top five in the league at roughly $32.5 million.
But for Dallas to agree on a long-term contract, can the team prove its high tolerance for off-the-field concerns and cash in before he out prices himself? If he plays on the franchise tag, it leaves the risk of Pickens having just as good of a 2026 campaign and driving the price up even higher. While that could only be the difference of $4-8 million per year depending on the level of success he finds, that is valuable money in putting together depth holes on a roster.
Jones’ comments on Monday don’t offer any sort of indication that the team is in a rush to get a long-term extension done. He said that the team is comfortable letting Pickens’ roughly $28 million cap hit count entirely toward 2026 if it means they don’t come to a long-term agreement.
It begs the question: Are there questions still to be answered before that multi-year contract can be put in front of him? This week’s conversations in Indianapolis should offer more clarity.