A report last Thursday indicated George Pickens would sign the franchise tag and participate in the offseason program. The Cowboys, though, began their offseason program on Monday without the star wide receiver as he hadn’t signed the tag.
On Wednesday, the team announced that Pickens has signed the tag.
The one-year tender guarantees him $27.3 million for this season.
It also presents the possibility of a trade, but executive vice president Stephen Jones said the Cowboys have “zero intention” of dealing Pickens.
Jones also said the Cowboys will not negotiate with Pickens in 2026.
Pickens is scheduled for free agency in 2027.
Pickens, 25, earned his first Pro Bowl in his first season in Dallas in 2025, making 93 receptions for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns.
Two NFC teams are taking a look at an older incoming quarterback.
Per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, Maverick McIvor has accepted an invitation to Cowboys and Bears rookie minicamps.
McIvor, 25, spent three seasons with Texas Tech before transferring to Abilene Christian, where he started for three years, helping the FCS-level program win a conference championship.
He was then granted a seventh year of eligibility and spent it at Western Kentucky, starting seven games in 2025. He completed 67 percent of his passes for 2,062 yards with 12 touchdowns and six interceptions, despite missing six games due to a left shoulder injury.
On the first day of the NFL draft, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported that Cowboys receiver George Pickens will sign his one-year, $27.298 million franchise tender.
While he still may, he has not yet done it.
Todd Archer of ESPN reports that Pickens has yet to sign the tender.
Technically, a player simply needs to accept it. That can happen via email, for example. Regardless, until the tender is accepted, the player is not under contract.
Accepting the tender puts the player under contract. He can be fined for skipping the lone annual mandatory minicamp. He can be fined for holding out from training camp, and for skipping preseason games.
There are multiple potential motivations for accepting the tender early. A player could decide to fully commit himself to having a big year, setting the stage for becoming a free agent again the following year.
In Pickens’s case, it’s more likely that the Cowboys would simply tag him again. By rule, he’d be entitled to a 20-percent increase over his 2026 pay. That’s $32.75 million — and still far below the current market rate of $42.15 million annually.
Accepting the tender also would allow the player to be traded. And perhaps the premature news was leaked to goose the possibility of someone offering the Cowboys something for Pickens during the draft.
Here’s the most important thing to remember when it comes to a potential Pickens trade. If it happens after July 15, the new team would not be able to sign him to a multi-year contract. That’s the deadline that applies to any franchise-tagged player — no multi-year deal after July 15. (It’s possible that the player could sign a multi-year offer sheet after July 15; that’s never been tested and isn’t relevant here, since no one has shown any inclination to potentially give up two first-round picks for Pickens, if an offer sheet isn’t matched by the Cowboys.)
In other words, a Micah Parsons-style outcome (with a trade during the preseason) is impossible, unless the new team would take Pickens in August and accept that it’s a one-year arrangement with exclusive negotiation rights after the season ends and the ability to tag him again the following year as a fallback.
The Cowboys signed three veteran players to one-year deals, the team announced Monday.
Wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling was previously reported, but the Cowboys also signed wide receiver Tyler Johnson and linebacker Curtis Robinson.
Johnson, 27, spent last season with the Jets. He played 12 games with five starts, seeing action on 292 offensive snaps.
Johnson made 12 catches for 197 yards and a touchdown in 2025.
He entered the NFL as a fifth-round pick of the Buccaneers in 2020, and he spent two seasons with them, one with the Texans, two with the Rams and last season with the Jets.
Johnson, who won a Super Bowl ring in Tampa, has 88 receptions for 1,025 yards and five touchdowns in his career.
Robinson, 27, has played 29 games with three starts in five seasons. He has seen time with the Broncos and 49ers, and Robinson started for the first time in his career with San Francisco last season when he played a career-high 248 snaps.
Robinson has played 335 defensive snaps and 432 on special teams and has 52 tackles and a pass defensed.
The Cowboys added a receiver late in the draft over the weekend and now have added a veteran to the mix.
Dallas has signed receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, according to the transaction wire.
Valdes-Scantling, 31, split last season between the 49ers and Steelers. He appeared in five games each for San Francisco and Pittsburgh, catching four passes for 40 yards for the 49ers and 10 catches for 80 yards with a TD for the Steelers.
A fifth-round pick in 2018, Valdes-Scantling has caught 219 passes for 3,686 yards with 21 touchdowns in his career.
