Cowboys WR George Pickens is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason after a career-best season in 2025.
The expectation as of now is that Dallas will use the franchise tag to give them more time to work out a long-term deal or a trade. OverTheCap.com valued Pickens’ 2025 season at $31,681,000, and they project the franchise tag for receivers to cost $28,824,000.
ESPN’s Todd Archer mentioned that Pickens was fined multiple times by the team during his first season in Dallas. Maturity and timeliness had been an issue when they traded for him from Pittsburgh. Those issues weren’t as big of a deal to the Cowboys in 2025, but they still showed up at different points of the season, which could cause some reserve about a long-term deal.
Pickens, 24, was a preseason All-American second-team selection in 2021 and a second-team preseason All-SEC at Georgia. The Steelers used the No. 52 overall pick on him in the 2022 NFL Draft.
He’s in the final year of a four-year $6,752,177 rookie contract that included a $2,090,674 signing bonus when he was traded to the Cowboys after the draft for a future third-round pick.
In 2025, Pickens appeared in all 17 games for the Cowboys and caught 93 passes for 1,429 yards receiving and nine touchdowns.
We have him included in our Top 100 – 2026 NFL Free Agents.
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