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The Dallas Cowboys placed the franchise tag on wide receiver George Pickens on Friday, and this means a few things. As far as any future long-term deal is concerned, the Cowboys and Pickens now have until 4pm ET on July 15th to negotiate one or else he must play the season out on a one-year deal. Those are the NFL’s rules.
Also of note given that the Cowboys placed the non-exclusive tag on Pickens the wide receiver is free to negotiate with other teams. If he receives an offer then the Cowboys have the right to match it and if they do not the offering team would owe Dallas two first-round picks.
There is also the matter of the actual franchise tag value.
George Pickens’ franchise tag value is just north of $27M
Friday afternoon , the NFL announced two important pieces of financial information.
- The 2026 salary cap is officially $301.2M per team
- As a result franchise tag values officially became set
- The value for wide receivers (and George Pickens) is officially $27,298,000
The franchise tag value is one that is fully guaranteed. This is the way that the tag works. So now that Pickens has officially received it from the Cowboys he counts that much against the 2026 salary cap. It is worth noting the cap grew by about $22M from 2025 so the difference is almost the tag amount.
As is always the case the Cowboys can create more cap space for themselves by restructuring their bigger contracts. Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb come to mind. Quinnen Williams is a name to watch as well, and so is Kenny Clark.
The Cowboys could always massage Pickens’ cap number if they are able to work out a long-term deal. That is certainly one incentive to do so.