With Cowboys receiver George Pickens turning his contract year into a breakout season, his status will become a focal point until it’s resolved.
Currently, all signs are pointing toward the franchise tag — especially since there have been no negotiations on a long-term deal.
And it will be interesting to see whether it gets nasty. Along those lines, a stray comment from Todd Archer of ESPN.com has been twisted by the Twitterbots into something bigger than it is.
Writes Archer, at the bottom of an article taking a broader look at the Pickens situation: “The questions about him in Pittsburgh -- maturity, timeliness -- weren’t as much of a problem for the Cowboys. That doesn’t mean those issues disappeared when he arrived in Dallas. Coach Brian Schottenheimer alluded to Pickens still being late to things, and multiple sources said Pickens was fined during the season.”
That has been twisted into a claim that Archer has reported the Cowboys fined Lamb “multiple times.” That’s not what Archer said.
One issue came to light during the season. Pickens and receiver CeeDee Lamb were benched early in a Monday night game at the Raiders. Owner Jerry Jones later said that Pickens missed a team bus. (It wasn’t disclosed whether Pickens was fined for that, too.)
Did it really matter? Pickens’s performance in that same game (despite missing the opening series) prompted Jones to praise Pickens: “It was poetic the way that he was making those moves out there. It was like he was in an opera or something out there. A ballet.”
The broader question is whether the team’s effort to squeeze Pickens eventually will include leaking details that could make him less attractive to other teams. If someone is willing to pay him $40 million per year, that would complicate the Cowboys’ effort to keep him. If no one is hinting at offering more money than the Cowboys will pay, Pickens may decide to take what he can get.
For now, it doesn’t look like the Cowboys have launched a smear campaign. They still could. The team’s apparent willingness to commit $28 million to Pickens under the franchise tag shows that they have no qualms about embracing him for 2026 and beyond.
That should speak far more loudly than any whispers that could trace back to the team.
