The Cowboys rallied from 21 points down to pull off a 24-21 win over the NFC East rival Eagles on Sunday. Wide receiver George Pickens was among the driving forces behind the team’s stunning comeback. The first-year Cowboy hauled in nine of Dak Prescott‘s passes for the second game in a row, racked up 146 yards, and scored a touchdown.
After a productive three-year run in Pittsburgh, which traded him in May, Pickens has found another gear with a change of scenery. The 24-year-old ranks second in the NFL in yards (1,054), third in TDs (a career-high eight), and eighth in catches (67, also a personal best). With Pickens scheduled to reach free agency in the offseason, he’s enjoying a breakout year at the right time.
While a trip to the open market would prove lucrative for Pickens, odds are he won’t get there. Even if Dallas and Pickens are unable to reach a long-term agreement before free agency begins in March, it seems likely the team will place the franchise tag on the wideout.
The tag would cost the Cowboys around $28MM, but it appears they’d be willing to make a longer commitment. The goal is to keep Pickens in the fold beyond 2026, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports.
The two sides have not begun contract talks, according to Rapoport, but a tagged Pickens would be eligible for an extension until July 2026. That would give team and player a few months to work something out. The Cowboys haven’t used the tag on a receiver since Dez Bryant in March 2015. They ended up extending Bryant that July.
Neither Pickens nor his representatives at Athletes First would be thrilled with the tag, per Rapoport, who notes trading him for picks could be an option for the Cowboys if they can’t extend him. They’d prefer to avoid that, though.
Notably, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and one of Pickens’ agents, David Mulugheta, clashed during contract negotations for Micah Parsons last summer. After a long and contentious standoff, the Cowboys wound up trading Parsons to the Packers in a late-August blockbuster. The history between Jones and Mulugheta may not bode well on paper, though team sources told Rapoport it won’t stand in the way of a potential Pickens deal.
After watching Pickens help the Cowboys improve to 5-5-1 and stay in the playoff hunt in Week 12, Jones lavished praise on the star pass catcher, saying (via Jon Machota of The Athletic): “We are proud we’ve got him and I don’t know of anyone that has helped his team any more to win this year.”
When asked if he wants Pickens to stay with the Cowboys in 2026, Jones left no doubt.
“Of course, of course we are proud to have him and I don’t even want to play games with it, we’d love to have him on the team,” Jones said.
The Cowboys already have one massive receiver contract on their books after Jones authorized a four-year, $136MM extension for CeeDee Lamb in August 2024. Lamb is one of 10 receivers averaging upward of $30MM per year. Pickens is making a case to join him on an enormous multiyear pact of his own. At the very least, Pickens will approach the $30MM figure next season if he plays under the tag.
It was a prove it year for Pickens and you can’t have asked much more of him. Good fit with Dak, good complement to Lamb. How big a commitment it’ll take is another story.
Jerry is the king of overpaying thanks to his league-worst negotiating skills (well, other than the Browns)…
Paying him would continue them having a bad defense.
It is almost like Mike Tomlin is a horrible coach who can’t control his players time and time again.
Pickens was had for a next year 3rd and has 1000 yards and 8 TDs already and the Steelers have no clue who their #2-4 pass catchers are.
Imagine going from DK and Pickens to just DK. They turned a huge strength into a giant weakness. Defense stays on the field longer and gives up more points because they can’t move the chains with any consistency.
Mike Tomlin is a hack. Which NFL coach hasn’t won a playoff game in 9 years that is still employed by that same team? I can’t remember a single coach in my lifetime that meets that accomplishment.
Some sort of privilege I guess.
It’s almost like Tomlin hasn’t had a good quarterback situation since Roethlisberger declined.
Having a good QB doesn’t preclude you from being able to manage your diva players better though, right?
You can have bad QB play and still not allow guys like Brown, Pickens, Bryant, Le’Veon, Claypool, Harrison on his final stint, Holmes, Blount, and Bush…
Tomlin has a history of players getting into trouble, being overly vocal about the team, and locker room issues. Tomlin WAS successful, but hasn’t been in almost a decade and somehow he is treated like he is untouchable despite all of these flaws and lack of production.
You’re conflating a bunch of very different situations, some of which aren’t really a coach’s fault. They also made the playoffs 7 out of the last 10 seasons, so the idea that he hasn’t been successful is holding him to a standard that hardly any teams meet. This started with you pointing out that Pickens has put up big numbers with Dallas as a knock on Tomlin. Pickens is playing with a good quarterback for the first time in his whole career. I don’t think that’s a coaching issue.
It’s almost like it’s Tomlin’s fault that he’s not the GM and he hasn’t drafted a quality QB …
And in a way, it IS Tomlin’s fault. He has been the head coach of the Steelers for 18 years now and has yet to have a losing season. Thus they are always drafting in the middle to late of each round.
Pickens wanted out of Pittsburgh because they provided him with a murderers row of mediocrity at QB Five quarterbacks in his three years, none of which put up quality numbers.
“Fair is foul and foul is fair” Will Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Tomlin is one of the best head coaches in the NFL. Steelers fans won’t know what they have until it’s gone (should he leave), much like Pickens.
Most coaches in the NFL don’t have GM duties. You still have to coach the players you get regardless of who you have on the roster and regardless of circumstances.
Those are excuses for the laundry list of players Tomlin has permitted to act out and against team interests.
Tomlin WAS one of the best coaches. As it currently sits and has sat for the last 9 years he is the pinnacle of mediocrity trading on past performances.
Jerry Jones: “Of course I want to keep Michael Parsons.”
Well every player wants to be Jerry’s love child….lol.
Wait, we know how this works. Jerry tags Pickens, who holds out of training camp until three other high dollar WR contracts come in, forcing the owner to overpay yet again when he could have gotten a deal done in March or April. The Jerry Jones way…
“After a productive three-year run in Pittsburgh … Pickens has found another gear with a change of scenery”.
Or you could say that he has flourished with a quality QB. It’s almost like it’s important to have both a very good QB AND a very good WR in order to have a great passing attack. Pickens didn’t find “another gear”, George has found a quality quarterback to get him the ball.
This is a pretty grim situation for Dallas. With CeeDee Lamb, Prescott and Pickens all on the books the salary cap will be way overweighted to skill players on offense. There won’t be enough available to build the offensive line and/or defense.
There’s another team in the NFL in exactly this predicament, with Joe Burrow, JaMarr (Spitter) Chase and Tee Higgins.