It has been almost two weeks since free agency began, by way of legal tampering to be clear, in the NFL, and the Dallas Cowboys have made several changes to their roster to better prepare for the 2026 season.
As exciting as the Rashan Gary, Jalen Thompson, and/or Cobie Durant moves are, those are only a few things that the Cowboys have been tending to since the offseason began at large. Dallas opened up 2026 needing to figure out what was going to happen with two players specifically in wide receiver George Pickens and kicker Brandon Aubrey, and they executed different moves with them individually to buy more time.
Pickens was given the non-exclusive franchise tag and Aubrey had a second-round tender placed on him. More may come from that before the season actually begins, but right now things are kind of treading water.
New updates are murky to say the least
A couple of hours before the NCAA Tournament, Calvin Watkins of The Dallas Morning News issued an update of sorts regarding these situations.
The “updates” here are essentially that there are no updates. Watkins even noted that there have been no contract talks when it comes to Pickens and that it sort of seems like he will play the year out on the franchise tag.
Let’s clear up the Brandon Aubrey confusion, in case you have any
As things relate to Brandon Aubrey, the factual foundation of everything is that the Cowboys placed a second-round tender on him which pays $5.76M. That is important to rest all of this on.
There have been a lot of reports around this story, though. The week of the NFL combine featured a ton of updates on this front. Let’s recap it all and catch you up so that you aren’t lost.
We are recapping all of this to avoid any confusion as noted, particularly given the cloudy nature that surrounded this thing when the reports were flying left and right. This is where things had come to rest before Thursday though, so the report from Watkins is a summation of it all.