Mailbag: Pickens negotiating with other teams?

(Editor's Note: Time to check the mail! The DallasCowboys.com staff writers answer your questions here in 'Mailbag' presented by Miller Lite.)

Since the non-exclusive tag allows players to negotiate with other teams, why haven't we heard anything about George Pickens' agent trying to work on a big contract with another team? I would think no offers would mean less leverage when it comes to negotiations with the Cowboys. Your thoughts? – Gil Lopez/Edinburg, TX

Patrik: Not every conversation or discussion with a team is publicized, to be frank with you. I promise there are lots of contract talks that happen between players and teams that never make it to the news cycle. My point being that silence does not necessarily indicate lack of motion. That said, any talks that have a lot of meat on the bone could find its way to the headlines, somewhat to your point. As far as leverage for the Cowboys goes, they've got most of it regardless of anything.

Either a team ponies up a first-round pick for the benefit of paying Pickens a huge contract, or teams shy away from it he is held to the franchise tag as a worst-case scenario; and a multi-year deal as a best-case scenario, if one can be done before mid-July. Either way, while the Cowboys remain actively engaged in trying to get a deal done sooner than later, they aren't exactly sweating bullets right now.

Tommy: I don't know if I would necessarily read into that too much. As far as leverage goes, Pickens already doesn't have a lot of it. Like Patrik outlined, teams would probably have to give up high draft capital and be willing to pay a big contract extension for Pickens' services going into 2026, and who knows if there's a team willing to do that at this point in time. The Cowboys have ultimately said their goal is to keep Pickens around in the long-term, but they're not necessarily in a hurry to do so as they have the option to tag him this year as well as next year at 120% of the tag cost at the WR position. Sure, Pickens has the option to perform a hold-in to try and gain some leverage, but ultimately it's highly unlikely in my opinion that he misses games during the season as historically that hasn't worked out very well. One way or another, I expect Pickens to be on the field Week 1 for the Cowboys in 2026 as things currently stand.