While Dallas Cowboys
wide receiver George Pickens was not present for the team’s first voluntary workout that followed his signing of the franchise tag worth roughly $27.3M for the 2026 season, he is nevertheless expected to play for the club later this year.
During a recent chat with Athlon Sports contributor DJ Siddiqi, Cowboys legend and Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith shared somewhat of a surprising reaction to the team’s handling of the Pickens situation.
Cowboys keeping George Pickens via the franchise tag is a “great thing”
“I think for George, it may not be the most pleasant thing to get tagged the way he did,” Smith explained. “However, for the Cowboys overall, I think it’s a great thing. Because now you have George Pickens that’s coming back for an entire season. You have (No.1 receiver) CeeDee Lamb. Your offensive wide receiver core is set.”
History shows that former players such as Smith often campaign for teams to lock current stars down via multiyear deals. That said, it’s understandable that Smith is glad the Cowboys didn’t let a talent who recorded 93 receptions for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns last season hit the open market.
For a mailbag posted on Tuesday, Nick Eatman of the Cowboys’ website wrote that “the plan is still for CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens to form one of the best receiver duos in the NFL” this coming season. Meanwhile, the Cowboys reportedly are already open to the idea of tagging Pickens a second time at a cost of approximately $32.6M for the 2027 campaign.
Emmitt Smith loving this one thing about the Cowboys’ offseason
“What I’m loving the most about this Cowboys offseason, it’s been fairly low key, fairly quiet to me,” Smith told Siddiqi. “That is a focus that needs to take place and continue to elevate itself throughout the course of the season, and just trying to trying to maintain health getting better in year two of (head coach) Brian Schottenheimer’s offensive scheme, and allowing our new defensive coordinator (Christian Parker) to implement his new scheme with the young players that he drafted and the current veterans that are around that’s going to help us stop the run, and the linebackers that we gathered, the secondary that we’re putting together.”
Last offseason wasn’t all that quiet for the Cowboys due to the contract standoff involving star pass-rusher Micah Parsons, who was eventually traded to the Green Bay Packers in August. The situation involving Pickens hasn’t yet become messy for the Cowboys, but things could change if he isn’t spotted at the team’s facility when mandatory minicamp gets underway on June 16.