{"id":119897,"date":"2026-01-12T13:12:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/119897\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T13:12:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:12:26","slug":"dallas-cowboys-news-george-pickens-franchise-tag-vs-long-term-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/119897\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys news: George Pickens franchise tag vs. long-term deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cowboys could save at least $2.5 million in 2026 by placing the franchise tag on George Pickens<\/p>\n

Acquired in a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers in early May, Pickens was phenomenal for Dallas during the 2025 season, ranking eighth in the NFL in receptions (93), third in receiving yards (1,429), sixth in yards per reception (15.4), and tied for eighth in receiving touchdowns (nine) en route to earning his first trip to the Pro Bowl.<\/p>\n

Sure, CeeDee Lamb being sidelined for a few weeks helped, but this was still a monster campaign. Some were concerned about Pickens\u2019 behavioral issues in Pittsburgh, but outside of a few minor incidents in which he appeared to check out, he was seemingly a model teammate for most of the season, which is why Dak Prescott, Brian Schottenheimer, and even Jerry Jones himself have all expressed desire to bring him back.<\/p>\n

According to Spotrac, Pickens\u2019 market value could see him land <\/a>a four-year deal worth $122,425,436, making his average annual salary a robust $30,606,359 per season, which would make him the seventh-highest-paid receiver in the league.<\/p>\n

According to Over The Cap, however, the projected franchise tag figure<\/a> for a wide receiver for the 2026 season is $28,046,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cowboys could save at least $2.5 million in 2026 by placing the franchise tag on George Pickens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,932,104,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-119897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-cowboys-news","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}