Dallas Cowboys fans would love to have an offseason without any contract drama, but it doesn’t seem like that will happen in 2026. The reason why is that the team franchise-tagged star receiver George Pickens, instead of signing him to a long-term deal. Since players rarely want to play on the franchise tag, teams using tags typically lead to more issues.
Head coach Brian Schottenheimer recently revealed that those issues could be headed the Cowboys’ way. Speaking with the media on Monday at the NFL’s annual meetings, Schottenheimer shared that he has been in contact with Pickens.
The head coach went on to share that the receiver hasn’t given him any assurance that he will participate in Dallas’ voluntary offseason program.
While Schottenheimer tried to downplay the entire situation, fans, unfortunately, know that this is typically how messy contract sagas start (h/t Tommy Yarrish, DallasCowboys.com)
Add us as a preferred source on Google"No, and I haven't pushed that on him. We're all going through the process. It's almost April, we're still a couple weeks away. It's going to play out the way it plays out. Again, it's all voluntary, so we'll see where it goes."
Brian Schottenheimer reveals George Pickens hasn’t committed to Cowboys offseason program
While Schottenheimer tried to downplay the entire situation, fans, unfortunately, know that this is typically how messy contract sagas start.
Again, the head coach said everything to make it sound like the entire situation wasn’t a big deal. Schottenheimer emphasized that Dallas loves Pickens, and the receiver loves the Cowboys, so the plan remains for the wideout to be around long term.
"GP loves it here. We love GP. We have plans for GP to be here for a long time, so we'll let the business side of this thing play out and see where it goes."
Talk about a double-edged sword. Pickens hasn't committed to the offseason program yet, but he loves being in Dallas, and the Cowboys love him.
Additionally, the head coach made sure to point out that the offseason activities are largely voluntary anyway and still a couple of weeks away.
However, fans have seen this situation unfold enough to know that it starts with a star player not attending voluntary activities and eventually evolves into them skipping mandatory things like training camp. In Pickens’ case, since he isn’t technically under contract until he signs the franchise tag, Dallas can’t even mandate that he participate in anything.
While this is a potentially discouraging sign of what’s possibly to come, Schottenheimer is right to point out that it’s still extremely early in the offseason.
Pickens and the Cowboys can still get everything figured out, or the veteran receiver can just decide to show up to everything and play on the franchise tag. Whatever the path, fans would just love to have as less drama as possible, and to keep the receiver around.
That seems like a no-brainer after Pickens caught 93 passes for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns, while playing in all 17 games, but the Cowboys don’t seem motivated to make the simple decision easy.