A Monday report revealed that Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens “plans to be at” the Cowboys’ mandatory minicamp, which is scheduled to run from Tuesday through Thursday, after he stayed away from the team throughout the voluntary portion of the offseason program.
It sounds like Cowboys fans won’t have to wait until Tuesday to learn if that report is accurate.
George Pickens has already shown up for work
On Monday, Joseph Hoyt of The Dallas Morning News and others shared that Pickens “arrived at the team facility for his physical this morning and he’s expected to be in attendance for the rest of minicamp.”
Ahead of this past weekend, Pickens curiously declined to confirm that he would report for the start of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday. That understandably caused some to wonder if he could complete some sort of holdout due to the fact that he’s upset he apparently will not receive a lucrative contract extension from the club and will instead have to play on the franchise tag worth roughly $27.3M for the 2026 season.
Had Pickens not signed the franchise tender, he could have skipped mandatory minicamp without being fined by the Cowboys. He could now be docked a total of $107,911 if he experiences a change of heart and doesn’t report for any of the team’s mandatory sessions since he signed the tag earlier this spring.
Why the George Pickens situation is different than how CeeDee Lamb handled his contract talks in 2024
Back in the summer of 2024, the Cowboys and No. 1 receiver CeeDee Lamb were involved in a contract standoff until he put pen to paper on a four-year, $136M deal. For an article posted on Monday, Hoyt explained why the Pickens situation is different than what occurred two years ago.
“Pickens is no longer on a rookie deal, which means any non-excused absence is subject to fines that can’t be forgiven,” Hoyt wrote. “It’s different from 2024, when Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb missed all of training camp in Oxnard while negotiating an extension on his rookie deal. All accumulated fines were forgiven.”
Pickens probably won’t be asked to do all that much on the field this week. Nevertheless, he seemingly isn’t interested in forfeiting any money to prove some kind of point to the Cowboys before the team’s summer break gets underway.