FRISCO, Texas – Well, no surprise, George Pickens and his agent said prior to the start of Thursday's NFL Draft the Pro Bowl wide receiver was intending to sign his franchise tag.
GP a man of his word, showing up at The Star to sign on the dotted line. No docu-sign when comes to these contracts. Must do so in person, and on Wednesday Pickens put his signature on the dotted line, insuring his guaranteed one-year $27.3 million payday he'll earn over the 18 weeks of the 2026 season.
No offseason negotiating-provoked drama. No elongated negotiating training camp drama either this summer. Done deal.
Both sides agreeing the franchise tag is the way to go.
The Cowboys had every intention of wanting Pickens to play on the franchise tag. And if you think about it, when Jerry or Stephen Jones previously was asked how the negotiations on a long-term contract were going, they suggested nothing was going on. That was intentional.
Few understood, anticipating Pickens holding out. Oh no, not another Micah situation, although Parsons already was under contract, the Cowboys working the system by picking up his fifth-year option at a guaranteed $21 million that for me always believed was an intentional stalemate, not wanting to pay out huge, guaranteed bucks on a long-term deal for trust reasons.
That is until the Packers offered the Cowboys a deal they couldn't refuse, turning the Parsons trade into veteran Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark, along with 2026 and 2027 first round draft choices. Now look how that all has turned out, since they already have used that 2027 first round pick when trading for Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams last year and then turning the 2026 first round pick into defensive lineman Malachi Lawrence this past Thursday, along with when trading down three spots with that pick and turning that 20th pick into two fourth-round draft choices, too.
If you are scoring at home that means trading Parsons has turned into having the ability to bring on five players, Clark, Quinnen Williams, Malachai Lawrence and the two fourth rounders on Saturday, CB Devin Moore and defensive lineman LT Overton.
Not a bad haul.
Oh, and remember this: Salary cap space, and why they could afford Clark and Williams and now being able to fund the franchise tag of Pickens, too, likely leaving Cowboys owner Jerry Jones grinning from ear to ear with a little told-you-so smile.
The only surprise to the Cowboys with Pickens signing so soon came Thursday around 5 p.m. That's when COO Stephen Jones found out Pickens' intention, telling me he was indeed "surprised" by that, but very welcoming and becoming a load off head coach Brian Schottenheimer's shoulders.
Said Stephen Jones Thursday night after the first round was completed, "So we've got every reason in the world to believe that hopefully he's ready to go to work, but we have zero intention of moving George Pickens."
Dust settled.
• Speaking Of Settled Dust: Now that the dust has settled following the 2026 NFL Draft, let's look at the Cowboys entire draft more rationally. We are well aware of what the Cowboys did with the seven draft choices they ended up with after using two fifth rounders to trade up one spot in the first to secure the services of Caleb Downs, moving from No. 12 to No. 11 and then replacing those two picks by trading down with their 20thpick in the first round to No. 23 for two fourth round picks and Lawrence. Nice moves. But there is more goodness to me. In the second round, no pick right. But did they not? Look they included their second-round pick as part of the trade for Williams, robust value for that pick. Then in the third round, no pick until trading Osa Odighizuwa to San Fran for a third round pick they used to select versatile linebacker Jaishawn Barham. But why didn't they previously have their own third-round pick? Why because they already had traded that third after last year's draft to acquire Pickens. Incredible value. And after three picks in the fourth, they used their last of the previous three fifth round picks to trade for inside linebacker Dee Winters, an absolute necessity – for now – to fill that glaring inside linebacker need after six of those guys they might have selected in the first two rounds were off the board. Draft value well spent on Winters who had started 27 of 32 games played for the Niners over the past two seasons, finishing with 101 tackles in 2025 playing 92 percent of the defensive snaps now going on just 26. Combine all that 2026 draft capital together and it's one helluva draft.
• Voice Of Reason: Have been hearing criticism of the Cowboys on draft day trading up from No. 12 in the first round to Miami's No. 11 to ensure drafting Ohio State "football player" Caleb Downs, and in doing so giving the Dolphins two fifth-round draft choices in return. Dissenters have been pointing out why do that since Miami wasn't interested in drafting Downs. Uh, that's obvious, otherwise the Dolphins wouldn't have made the trade. But asking these know-it-alls, how can they guarantee me another team behind the Cowboys weren't trying to trade up with Miami to jump the Cowboys at 12 and select Downs? Pretty obvious Miami was entertaining phone calls. And Tampa Bay at 15 sure went defense, selecting DE Rueben Bain and just might have decided trading up to select a player with a sure first round grade was a better option. Simmer down.
• Afterthought: This might sound ridiculous but after the Cowboys jumped up selecting Downs, the first of five defensive players taken with their seven draft choices, were any of you like me, thinking once Downs fell into their laps, who cares what they did the rest of the draft, that this already was a home run? OK, maybe a tad farfetched, but you get the idea, and understand the Cowboys were running out of draft choices still with first round grades at that point. Mighty, uh, lucky, or as owner Jerry Jones back in the day would rather classify as "serendipitous."
• Late Riser: Now that the Cowboys second first-round draft choice Lawrence seemed to have risen into the first round might have surprised you, but not necessarily the Cowboys. While they likely had a second-round grade on the defensive end from UCF, they only had around a dozen players or so with first round grades. So, in their minds trading down from 20 to 23 was no over-reach and had their eye on Lawrence all along. Here is what grabbed my attention when looking up his stats: 6-4, 253, ran a 4.53 second 40, a 40-inch vertical and an 82-inch wingspan. Think about that last number. That's two inches shy of seven feet horizontally, so but yeah-much between your thumb and forefinger, coming to 6.8 feet or 2.278 yards. Yards mind you. That means he could extend his arms out, with say the fingertips of his right hand touching the goal line and those on his left hand just past the 2-yard-line, like a tad more from reaching the 3.
• Tackling Position: All along before the draft thought the Cowboys needed to draft an offensive tackle with one of those three fifth-round picks, so they ended up doing so with what turned out to be the first of their three fourth round picks, selecting Drew Shelton, offensive tackle out of Penn State at 112. They need to continue trying to build offensive line depth, along with the idea of developing these mid-round picks into eventual starters. Can't keep having to use first round picks on every one of those five starters on the offensive line. As it currently stands on the offensive line, they have three first-round starters today in Tyler Smith, Tyler Booker and Tyler Guyton. You realize when the Cowboys won those two Super Bowls during the 1992-93 seasons, the highest drafted of the starting five offensive linemen were third round picks C Mark Stepnoski and RT Erik Williams. And when it came to winning Super Bowl XXX during the 1995 season, the highest drafted players were second rounders G Larry Allen and 16-year veteran C Ray Donaldson, a 1980 second round draft choice of the Baltimore Colts, yeah, that far back. Donaldson became a six-time Pro Bowler (twice with the Cowboys 1995-96) and in 1981 only the second Black player to start at center in the NFL if you can comprehend that.
• Need To Know: There were football players on the football field, the Cowboys officially opening their offseason this week, players able to work on strength, field conditioning and participating in meeting at The Star . . . Here is the other drafted position intriguing me, that being a 3-4 defensive end LT Overton at 6-3, 274 out of Alabama with the third of their three fourth-round picks, a guy who started 16 games over his final two seasons at Alabama after two years at A&M . . . Just so you know, LT stands for Lebbeus Thomas, figuring to vie for backup duty behind Quinnen Williams in the 3-4 base alignment, and know, too, both his mom (volleyball at Kentucky) and dad (football at Oklahoma) were collegiate athletes, so let's hear it for the genes . . . As for the collegiate Jason Witten Man of the Year finalists, as pointed out the winner Rodriguez was drafted in the second round by Miami; and finalists LB Aiden Fisher of Indiana drafted by Houston in the seventh and OT Aamil Wagner of Notre Dame an undrafted free agent agreeing to terms with the Titans . . . And we'll finish on what Jerry Jones had to say when asked about making a trade with NFC East rival Philadelphia, certainly a no-no 30 to 40 years ago, saying, "If you eliminate all the teams that I want to beat their ass, you wouldn't have anybody to trade with."
And since this is football, but a game, for this week's last word let's have some fun with Cowboys VP of player personnel Will McClay and head coach Brian Schottenheimer when asked if their kids every criticize or praise their draft choices.
Will McClay: "Yes, my son (Gab) does. He's 19 now, and I tell him if you want to get college paid for then don't tell me how to
do my job."
Brian Schottenheimer: "And my kids, they question my play calling more than they question Will and Jerry and Stephen's
selection of players. I get hit with the play calling. 'Why'd you do that on short yardage? That was stupid.' That's what I get."
Proving arm-chair QBs pretty universal.
