A Tuesday report said that Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens “is not pleased about the team’s handling of his contract” and only reported to mandatory minicamp this week “to avoid financial penalties.”
That, along with the fact that Pickens won’t take part in team drills during mandatory minicamp, could lead one to believe he may cause problems for the Cowboys later this summer. It appears that won’t be the case.
Could George Pickens hold out after signing franchise tag?
As Pro Football Talk’s Charean Williams and Jon Machota of The Athletic shared, Pickens confirmed on Tuesday that he won’t hold out.
“It’s football first, you see what I mean? So definitely play football first, kind of like I did last year, and then worry about, well, let my agent worry about [contract] talk[s],” Pickens said about his mindset.
While Pickens signed the franchise tag worth roughly $27.3M for the 2026 season earlier this spring, he stayed away from the Cowboys throughout the voluntary portion of the offseason program after it was revealed that he would not be receiving a multiyear contract extension from the club before the July 15 deadline for teams to sign tagged players to such deals arrived.
On Tuesday, Pickens said that agent David Mulugheta advised him not to participate in voluntary workouts. However, Pickens also said he will report for training-camp practices in late July.
George Pickens says this is what’s important to him amid questions about his contract
“What’s important to me is winning,” Pickens added. “Like I said from the beginning, I always wanna bring a Super Bowl to a group of guys that never had that feeling. That’s really the most important part to me.”
Pickens’ latest comments suggest that he plans to play on the franchise tag through the upcoming season before he and the Cowboys evaluate their options. On Tuesday morning, NFL insider Jason La Canfora of SportsBoom US noted that “there is concern within Pickens’ camp that he could be franchise-tagged again in 2027.”
That concern apparently won’t prevent Pickens from playing for the Cowboys when they open the 2026 regular season with a “Sunday Night Football” matchup at the rival New York Giants on Sept. 13.