{"id":269059,"date":"2026-04-28T01:24:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/269059\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T01:24:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:24:40","slug":"what-pickens-absence-from-voluntary-workouts-could-mean-for-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/269059\/","title":{"rendered":"What Pickens’ absence from voluntary workouts could mean for Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRISCO \u2014 The Cowboys were under the expectation that wide receiver George Pickens would sign his franchise tender<\/a>, as people familiar with Pickens\u2019 thinking indicated Thursday to\u00a0The Dallas Morning News. Doing so would\u2019ve allowed Pickens to participate in the first day of voluntary workouts on Monday \u2014 something head coach Brian Schottenheimer said he would ask Pickens to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Monday rolled around, neither of those things happened. Pickens had not signed his tender, and he didn\u2019t report to voluntary workouts as of Monday afternoon, according to a person familiar with the situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Monday\u2019s workouts were voluntary, and Pickens won\u2019t face any financial ramifications, it added another layer to a contract situation that could get tense. And if it gets tense, recent history<\/a> tells us there is potential for it to result in a separation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cowboys co-owner Stephen Jones announced last Wednesday, a day before the draft, that the Cowboys\u00a0wouldn\u2019t negotiate on a long-term deal with Pickens<\/a> this season. The Cowboys see the tag as a beneficial salary cap tool. They believed it was in their best interest to use it on Pickens with a non-exclusive tag worth $27.3 million for one year. The Cowboys and Pickens have until July 15 to negotiate long-term, but it doesn\u2019t appear the Cowboys are bluffing when it comes to their approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Schottenheimer and Jerry Jones said they told\u00a0Pickens in person about their intention to make him play on the tag. Jerry and Stephen Jones also called Pickens\u2019 agent, David Mulugheta of Athletes First, to let him know. That conversation, according to Stephen, lasted 5-10 minutes and was cordial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shortly before the first round began on Thursday, a person familiar with Pickens\u2019 thinking told The News that Pickens planned to sign the tag. The team was also made aware of that intention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The timing was interesting. If Pickens signed the deal, he not only would\u2019ve been allowed to participate in team activities, but he also would\u2019ve been eligible to be traded. The potential for a Pickens deal was a storyline that lasted until after the first round<\/a> of the draft when Stephen Jones said bluntly that they had no intention of trading\u00a0Pickens. The Cowboys continue to have that stance. They\u2019ve talked about how much Pickens loves the game and the benefits of having another Pro Bowl receiver opposite of CeeDee Lamb. Pickens has been catching passes from Dak Prescott<\/a> away from the facility. Schottenheimer, when asked if missing minicamp or training camp could affect their relationship, said that Prescott wouldn\u2019t let it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of now, there\u2019s no indication the relationship between Pickens and the Cowboys will reach that boiling point. What happened Monday, however, was at least a step in an interesting direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cowboys mandatory minicamp is scheduled for June 16. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRISCO \u2014 The Cowboys were under the expectation that wide receiver George Pickens would sign his franchise tender,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,100199,93042,88227,88776,88245,88775,88228],"class_list":["post-269059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-ceedee-lamb","tag-tp-dallas-cowboys","tag-tp-brian-schottenheimer","tag-tp-dak-prescott","tag-tp-george-pickens","tag-tp-jerry-jones","tag-tp-stephen-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269059","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=269059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}