George Pickens is coming off the best season of his career, and the Cowboys still won't hand him a long-term contract. That's the blunt reality ESPN's Louis Riddick laid out, and it lines up with what's been trickling out of Dallas all offseason: the front office is fine with Pickens for 2026, but not fine enough to lock him up beyond it.
Riddick spelled out exactly why the Cowboys are holding off on a long-term deal for Pickens.
This isn't some abstract front-office vibe — it's now confirmed policy. Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones has said flatly there won't be negotiations on a multiyear deal for Pickens ahead of Wednesday's franchise tag deadline. Instead, Pickens signed his one-year franchise tender worth $27.3 million, fully guaranteed, and that's the arrangement for 2026.
Go back to how he got to Dallas in the first place and the hesitation makes more sense. The Cowboys traded a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 fifth-rounder to Pittsburgh for Pickens last May, betting on talent over track record. The Steelers were reportedly ready to move on after locker-room friction, including a sideline scuffle with Cleveland's Greg Newsome II and multiple unsportsmanlike conduct flags, with Mike Tomlin saying at the time Pickens needed to "grow up in a hurry."
The bet paid off on the field. Pickens broke out with 93 catches, 1,429 yards and 9 touchdowns in 2025, good for his first Pro Bowl nod. That kind of season usually gets you paid — but Dallas is already committing roughly $34 million a year to CeeDee Lamb, and with only one season of tape on Pickens as a Cowboy, the front office is choosing patience over an extension.
So the standoff isn't a blowup, it's a bet on both sides. Dallas keeps its books flexible and gets another year to see if 2025 was real or a contract-year mirage, while Pickens plays for a monster tag number and can hit the market — or get tagged again for around $32.7 million in 2027 — if the two sides still can't agree. Either way, this is shaping up to be one of the more interesting slow-burn contract dramas of the NFL offseason, and it'll only get louder as training camp opens.