With Cowboys receiver George Pickens turning his contract year into a breakout season, his status will become a focal point until it\u2019s resolved.<\/p>\n
Currently, all signs are pointing toward the franchise tag \u2014 especially since there have been no negotiations on a long-term deal.<\/p>\n
And it will be interesting to see whether it gets nasty. Along those lines, a stray comment from Todd Archer of ESPN.com has been twisted by the Twitterbots into something bigger than it is.<\/p>\n
Writes Archer, at the bottom of an article taking a broader look at the Pickens situation: \u201cThe questions about him in Pittsburgh — maturity, timeliness — weren\u2019t as much of a problem for the Cowboys. That doesn\u2019t mean those issues disappeared when he arrived in Dallas. Coach Brian Schottenheimer alluded to Pickens still being late to things, and multiple sources said Pickens was fined during the season<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n That has been twisted into a claim that Archer has reported the Cowboys fined Lamb \u201cmultiple times.\u201d That\u2019s not what Archer said.<\/p>\n One issue came to light during the season. Pickens and receiver CeeDee Lamb were benched early<\/a> in a Monday night game at the Raiders. Owner Jerry Jones later said that Pickens missed a team bus<\/a>. (It wasn\u2019t disclosed whether Pickens was fined for that, too.)<\/p>\n