OXNARD, Calif. — Dallas Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Wednesday that George Pickens has been more dialed in during team meetings than at any point since the wide receiver arrived in Dallas.
“He was as dialed in in meetings as I’ve seen him since he’s been here, just following along, questions,” Schottenheimer said Wednesday at Cowboys training camp in Oxnard, California, via ESPN. “I think you’re going to see a very motivated George Pickens going into the season. And I think that’s great news for us and maybe bad news for the rest of the league.”
Pickens didn’t start Week 11 last season. Schottenheimer held him and CeeDee Lamb out of the opening lineup for missing curfew before the Monday night game at Las Vegas, and Dallas won 33-16.
George Pickens Is Playing the 2026 Season on the Franchise Tag
The Dallas Cowboys used the non-exclusive franchise tag on Pickens in February. Before April’s draft, the team announced it wouldn’t open long-term contract talks. Pickens signed the tender April 29, guaranteeing himself $27.3 million for 2026.
Pickens skipped the voluntary portion of the offseason program. He reported for mandatory minicamp in June and said then that he was prepared to play the season on the tag.
The July 15 deadline for tagged players to reach multiyear deals came and went without an agreement. Dallas hasn’t signed a first-time tagged player to an extension since 2015.
Jerry Jones on George Pickens’ Value to the Cowboys
Dallas finished 7-9-1 last season and missed the playoffs for the second straight year. The defense gave up a franchise-record 511 points. Pickens led the team in receptions and receiving yards, setting career highs with 93 receptions, 1,429 receiving yards, and 9 receiving touchdowns.
“He’s a valued part of our aspirations and our potential success. The combination that he has with the other talent on the team, I think will make you feel pretty positive about what we’ve got a chance to do,” Jerry Jones, the team’s owner and general manager, said Tuesday. “For the way we have worked this out is the way it fit. I’m proud that he will work it that way. I’m proud that he will. I hope that he comes out here and is the most prolific, successful receiver in the NFL this year. And how would you like to be a free agent and with his credentials and step out there and have a year like that? So I wish all of that because if that happens, that was good for us.”
Lamb and Pickens both cleared 1,000 receiving yards in 2025. That was the second time in franchise history Dallas has had a 4,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard rusher, and two 1,000-yard receivers in the same season. The other came in 2019.
George Pickens’ Career Numbers and the 2026 Opener
Pickens is 25 and enters the season with 267 receptions, 4,270 receiving yards, and 21 receiving touchdowns over four seasons. The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted him in the second round, 52nd overall, out of Georgia in 2022. He topped 1,000 receiving yards in 2023 and finished with 900 in an injury-shortened 2024.
Dallas acquired Pickens ahead of last season, sending Pittsburgh a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick. The Cowboys also received a sixth-round pick in the deal.
In his first year with the Cowboys, Pickens played all 17 games and started 15. He caught 93 of 137 targets and averaged 84.1 receiving yards per game. He made his first Pro Bowl and was named second-team All-Pro.
Dallas plays its preseason opener at Seattle. The regular-season schedule includes a Week 3 game against Baltimore in Rio de Janeiro and a Thanksgiving matchup with Philadelphia. The Cowboys open Sunday, Sept. 13, at the New York Giants, with kickoff set for 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC.
