Through the first seven weeks of this 2025 season (and one Week 8 game after the Los Angeles Chargers torched the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday night), the Dallas Cowboys have one of the top overall offenses in the NFL, ranking first in total yards per game (390.6) and second in scoring (31.7), trailing in the latter category to only the Indianapolis Colts (33.1).
One of the biggest pieces of this potent offensive attack thus far, of course, has been wide receiver George Pickens, who was acquired in a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers this past May. Not everybody was thrilled with the move, given the fact that the former Georgia Bulldog had some behavioral issues during his three-year run in the Steel City, but he's seemingly been the definition of a model teammate thus far as a member of America's Team.
As for his play on the field, Pickens has been nothing short of spectacular, ranking 15th in the league in receptions (36), fourth in receiving yards (607), and second in receiving touchdowns (6). Obviously brought in to complement CeeDee Lamb, Pickens stepped up and looked like a genuine WR1 when Lamb went down with an ankle injury early in the Cowboys' Week 3 loss to the Chicago Bears, tallying 24 catches for 427 yards with five scores in the three-plus games No. 88 was out of action.
Naturally, given how productive Pickens has been, Cowboys fans everywhere have been calling for Jerry Jones to extend his contract, as the fourth-year wideout is playing this 2025 campaign on the final year of his rookie deal. And while that may ultimately happen, ESPN's Dan Graziano doesn't believe anything would get done during the season.
"The Cowboys have had internal discussions about a possible extension for receiver George Pickens," Graziano wrote, "to the point where they've been examining the rosters and cap situations of teams like Cincinnati, Miami and Philadelphia, who are all paying multiple high-end receivers. (The Cowboys already pay CeeDee Lamb $34 million per year.) I don't think anything gets done on this until after the season, but Dallas has been happy with Pickens since acquiring him in an offseason trade with Pittsburgh, and it is at least considering what it would look like to keep Dak Prescott's wide receiver tandem together."
It hasn't been just internal discussions in Dallas extending Pickens, as Jones actually commented publicly on the matter in the aftermath of Pickens' eight-catch, 134-yard, two-touchdown performance in the Cowboys' 40-40 tie with the Green Bay Packers.
"He's an exemplary teammate," Jones said of Pickens. "He's exemplary in his work preparation. You can see the results of that out there Sunday.
"I’m proud to tell you that we’ve got some outstanding structure in our cap space that will allow us to do a lot of things that I didn’t think (we could) at this time last year. … We got it. We paid a price for it. … We can do it now."
The extra money Dallas may end up having, of course, would be the money that most thought would end up going to Micah Parsons. But that's obviously not a thing any longer.
If the Cowboys do want to do this come the offseason, some maneuvering will undoubtedly have to be done, as they currently have -$9,728,865 (yes, that's a negative sign) in available cap space for the 2026 season, according to Over The Cap, and that's not even taking the rookie class into account, which will add roughly another $15 million. But we all know deals can and will be restructured to clear up space.
What must be mentioned, of course, is that Pickens may not even want to re-sign, at least not right away, as he could very well want to test the open market. As mentioned, he played like a genuine WR1 in Lamb's absence, so one could easily assume that he'll want to be paid like one.
We'll just have to wait and see how things play out.