Whereas Dallas Cowboys
vast receiver George Pickens was not present for the staff’s first voluntary exercise that adopted his signing of the franchise tag price roughly $27.3M for the 2026 season, he’s nonetheless anticipated to play for the membership later this yr.
Throughout a latest chat with Athlon Sports activities contributor DJ Siddiqi, Cowboys legend and Corridor of Famer Emmitt Smith shared considerably of a shocking response to the staff’s dealing with of the Pickens scenario.
Cowboys retaining George Pickens through the franchise tag is a “great point”
“I believe for George, it might not be probably the most nice factor to get tagged the best way he did,” Smith defined. “Nevertheless, for the Cowboys total, I believe it’s an awesome factor. As a result of now you will have George Pickens that’s coming again for a whole season. You’ve got (No.1 receiver) CeeDee Lamb. Your offensive vast receiver core is about.”
Historical past exhibits that former gamers comparable to Smith usually marketing campaign for groups to lock present stars down through multiyear offers. That stated, it is comprehensible that Smith is glad the Cowboys did not let a expertise who recorded 93 receptions for 1,429 yards and 9 touchdowns final season hit the open market.
For a mailbag posted on Tuesday, Nick Eatman of the Cowboys’ web site wrote that “the plan remains to be for CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens to type probably the greatest receiver duos within the NFL” this coming season. In the meantime, the Cowboys reportedly are already open to the thought of tagging Pickens a second time at a price of roughly $32.6M for the 2027 marketing campaign.
Emmitt Smith loving this one factor concerning the Cowboys’ offseason
“What I’m loving probably the most about this Cowboys offseason, it’s been pretty low key, pretty quiet to me,” Smith advised Siddiqi. “That could be a focus that should happen and proceed to raise itself all through the course of the season, and simply making an attempt to making an attempt to take care of well being getting higher in yr two of (head coach) Brian Schottenheimer’s offensive scheme, and permitting our new defensive coordinator (Christian Parker) to implement his new scheme with the younger gamers that he drafted and the present veterans which can be round that’s going to assist us cease the run, and the linebackers that we gathered, the secondary that we’re placing collectively.”
Final offseason wasn’t all that quiet for the Cowboys because of the contract standoff involving star pass-rusher Micah Parsons, who was finally traded to the Green Bay Packers in August. The scenario involving Pickens hasn’t but turn out to be messy for the Cowboys, however issues may change if he is not noticed on the staff’s facility when obligatory minicamp will get underway on June 16.
