Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer has stated that the franchise hopes that George
The Dallas Cowboys' contract situation with George Pickens continues to be put on the back burner.
With the Cowboys placing the franchise tag on George, if a long-term deal can't be reached by the deadline, Pickens will play under the tag, which is roughly $27 million for the 2026 season.
Of course, in an ideal world, the Cowboys would agree to a long-term deal with Pickens before training camp to avoid unnecessary headlines.
But we know how the Cowboys' front office rolls, don't we?
With reports that Pickens might hold out of the offseason program gaining momentum, that isn't what fans want to hear.
We know how that impacted CeeDee Lamb in the early stages of the season when he took a similar approach - Dallas can't afford a slow start from Pickens.
Head coach Brian Schottenheimer, speaking at the league meetings, did say that he's unsure of Pickens' plan to attend offseason workouts.
At the same time, he made it clear that he wants to keep Pickens around long-term.
“He’s going great," Schottenheimer said via The Athletic's Jon Machota. "He and CeeDee have been taking a lot of trips together. He’s training with Dak. Look, GP loves it here. We love GP. We have plans for GP to be here for a long time.”
So that will likely fall on deaf ears for Cowboys Nation.
Why? Because we heard the same from the Cowboys last offseason regarding Micah Parsons.
But yet ... on Tuesday, owner Jerry Jones showed up to meet the media at the meetings.
And?
"Make no mistake about it, we have long-term plans for Pickens.'' Jones said.
So if the Cowboys truly want Pickens around long-term, a deal will be agreed to.
Given that the market is ever-changing, and with Jaxon Smith-Njigba's new deal, the price for Pickens, like Micah last offseason, is only going up.
So the Cowboys can't use the excuse that Pickens wants too much money. Had they been proactive and signed him earlier (they might have tried; the agent or George might have wanted to wait), Dallas could have gotten him at a lower price.
As much as fans won't like it, this is following a similar path to Parsons, though Cowboys COO Stephen Jones made a comment that caught my attention regarding George's contract.
"We're just not going to comment as we move forward with negotiations on where that stands or anything like that," Jones said.
Hmm, no public shots at George? Just a straight bat to a Pickens contract question?
Maybe the front office has learned from the Parsons debacle.
Now go do what Jerry is suggesting is the plan ... and sign him to a long-term deal.