FRISCO, Texas — George Pickens is back in the building and ready to go for the Dallas Cowboys, and head coach Brian Schottenheimer couldn't be more pleased. Just days after the latter expressed his expectation that the Pro Bowl receiver would be present for mandatory minicamp, Pickens delivered.
After undergoing and passing his physical, Pickens prepares to join his teammates on the field this week, though it'll be in a capacity so limited — to allow for a ramp-up period — that Schottenheimer says he'll be known as "Coach Pickens" this week; and that presumably means he'll mostly be on the sideline.
That doesn't take away from Schottenheimer's smile one bit, though.
"I had great visits with George, and I'm fired up to have him back," he said of Pickens. "He's fired up to be here. He'll do all the mock game, and he'll do all the individual, but we'll keep him out of team — just let him watch."
Of course, it doesn't stun the Cowboys at all that Pickens, having signed his franchise tag weeks ago, is reporting for mandatory minicamp.
"No, I know how he feels about this football team, this locker room and what we're building here," Schottenheimer said. "I'm not surprised to see him. The OTAs in the offseason program is voluntary, and this is the one part of it that's mandatory, and he's not the only player that hasn't been at camps around the league.
"But I think he just shows his commitment to the guys in that locker room and helping us win a Super Bowl."
To that point, Schottenheimer hammered home the reality that voluntary OTAs is exactly that: voluntary.
"It wasn't anything unusual, and it's a storyline, and I understand it's a storyline, but at the same time, it's part of the National Football League," he said.
Pickens will indeed play under the aforementioned franchise tag for 2026, in the hopes of earning a longterm deal next offseason when he and the Cowboys re-open contract negotiations. Coming off of a blockbuster season following a trade last spring that brought him to Dallas, he's been nothing short of outstanding both on and off the field.
All the world is tuned in to see what he might do when things kick off at MetLife Stadium in Week 1 against the New York Giants.
