FRISCO, Texas – The first 14 minutes of the annual Jerry Jones Cowboys bus interview at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis was spent answering questions about George Pickens.
About the Cowboys placing the 2026 franchise tag on him to retain the rights of their 2025 team-leading receiver.
About making the possibility of turning this franchise tag placeholder into a long-term deal.
About the comparison of Pickens potentially playing under the tag with Micah Parsons refusing to play for the fifth-year option, the Cowboys picked up for $24 million in 2025.
Along with Jerry repeatedly speaking of how much GP means to the Cowboys, along with how much the team mean to Pickens, knowing the likelihood of the Pro Bowl receiver returning for the 2026 season.
And right at the 13-minute mark, Jerry threw his gaggle of reporters peppering him with questions for a loop when he said, "I want our George Pickens relationship to be all honey."
"Honey," meaning sweet.
"I can't tell you how positive I feel about him, and I want our fans to look at it and say, 'That's a lot of money they're putting out there,'" Jerry emphasized.
Yep, that's ol' Jer, staying three steps ahead of the posse.
Here are the financials kicking in on March 11 when the 2026 NFL league year, the salary cap and free agency begin. Pickens, producing a 2025 career year with 93 catches for 1,429 yards and nine receiving touchdowns for the Cowboys, will be in the final year of his initial four-year contract signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a 2022 second-round draft choice:
That franchise tag is a one-year, guaranteed $27.3 million contract, if choosing to bet on himself while likely trying to negotiate a long-term deal by the July 15 deadline. That's $27 million now.
Do you realize over these past four seasons playing on his rookie deal, the first three spent with the Steelers who gave up on the mercurial receiver and a 2025 fifth-round draft choice to boot for a mere draft choice package consisting of a 2026 third-round selection and a 2027 fifth-rounder, Pickens made a grand total of $6.7 million.
If my math is right, that's like a 300 percent raise for basically one year of production for the Cowboys. Not a bad bag of dough.
This takes me back to 2018 when the Cowboys franchise tagged their 2014 second-round draft choice DeMarcus Lawrence for a robust $17.1 million after he had earned but $5.5 million in his first four seasons. Lawrence was not bitter over signing the tag instead of pocketing a signing bonus on a long-term deal.
Remember him saying, "Not going to turn my nose up on $17 million," as if that would be considered an insult to a young mane born and raised in Aiken, S.C., spending his first of two junior college seasons at Butler Community College as a redshirt before two more years at Boise State.
Parrying questions about the tag insulting him as others had suggested, D-Law said, "Because I'm not everybody else. I'm DeMarcus, and DeMarcus does what DeMarcus wants to do."
Even Dak Prescott, having played his 2020 season on a $31.4 million franchise tag after spending his first four years as the Cowboys starting quarterback, said he spoke to GP with this:
"George loves football. That's the one thing about it. I just want him to know, don't change your love for football. Don't get in the business mind of this. You played last year on a one-year (deal) for not even that much, right? So if you can go 30 (million) or whatever it is now – I think it's the same thing I got when I was franchised – hey, go do it.
"At the end of the day, bet on yourself. He's a hell of a player. Hopefully, we can get him long-term and sign that, but if not, I think the way he plays the game, the person that he is, he'll be just fine."
See, what's happening now is Pickens' franchise tag is being compared to last year when Parsons angled for a long-term deal instead of playing for the $24 million fifth-year option as a first-round draft choice the Cowboys already had picked up during the spring of 2024.
Parsons and his agent were butt hurt while haggling to become the NFL's highest paid non-quarterback on a multi-year deal.
The negotiations became protracted to the point, appearing to me, that Jerry and the Cowboys no longer had interest in trusting Parsons with a huge, multi-year guaranteed contract. Like the four-year extension he agreed to on the sign-and-trade deal with the Packers seven days prior to the start of the Cowboys' 2025 season. Yes, that four-year extension to the $24 million fifth-year option averages $46.5 million a season, though the fine print suggests the $186 million package, loaded with roster bonuses, in reality can become a four-year $165 million deal averaging $41.25 million.
What the Packers did was stuff a non-guaranteed $43.5 million base salary into 2029 to balloon the deal for appearances purposes. As we know, appearances can be deceiving.
Now then, the trade nicely compensated the Cowboys two first-round picks, one each in 2026 and 2027, along with Green Bay's three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark. Even more so when considering clearing $24 million off the Cowboys' 2025 salary cap and the average of $46.5 million annually, too, if using the Packers numbers.
"Micah was so valuable," Jones said the other day, "our opportunity to take what we got for Micah was too much. I couldn't turn it down."
But here is the other factor. Jones knew Parsons was not a great teammate. Remember Jerry during training camp continually talking about when guaranteeing a player that kind of money, that player needs to be a leader, to be a good teammate? There had to be times the Cowboys must have thought Parsons was hunting sacks to the detriment of the overall defense. Must have thought him acting as an independent contractor when off to himself, not working with his teammates in the offseasons.
But of Pickens, Jerry has gone out of his way to praise the type of player – the type of person – he was during his first year with the team, emphasis on "first year," the tag somewhat of a show-me all that again. That is why he called Pickens when the tag was applied, to inform him what they were going to do, portraying the move as a positive instead of a $27.3 million slap in the face if a long-term deal is not executed.
"We are sold on his ability to be part of a team, to play not only for the good of the team," said Jones, another meaningful blinking-light statement I don't ever recall him expressing about Parsons having that same quality. "He's an outstanding teammate, and all of that is why we decided to pay him what we're paying him."
Jerry would add, "Want to be clear, this is an expression on our part of what kind of person we think he is, what kind of player we think he is, and I think in its own way says a lot right there."
To me, sure does. That $27.3 million speaks volumes.
Now then, if something compatible to both sides can be worked out in the long term, something that doesn't break the Cowboys' salary cap bank that's hemorrhaging funds right now, all the better.
But in the meantime, once the league year begins, because the Cowboys have issued Pickens the non-exclusive franchise tag, he and his agent have the right to seek long-term offer sheets from other teams, and the tag allows the Cowboys right of first refusal to match.
If they choose not to match, that team owes the Cowboys two first-round draft choices this year. And at this time, assuming the Rams trading their first-round draft choice (29) to Kansas City for cornerback Trent McDuffie does go down once the league year begins, that means three other teams besides the Cowboys (12 and 20) would have two first-round picks in this upcoming draft: The Jets (2 and 16), Cleveland (6 and 24) and the Chiefs (9 and 29).
Could you imagine the Cowboys with four first-round draft choices come April if deciding not to match an offer sheet? In NFL history, only the 2000 Jets, under Bill Parcells' jurisdiction, ever accumulated four first-round draft choices in the same year, thanks to trading Keyshawn Johnson to Tampa Bay and acquiring compensation for Bill Belichick leaving to become the New England head coach.
As for now, Jerry went out of his way to extoll Pickens' value to the Cowboys, saying, "He is very deserving, because in and of itself, (the franchise tag) is a very significant attaboy relative to where we thought we'd be five or six months ago."
Meaning unexpected sweetness.
