What does future hold for Pickens and Cowboys?
Chris Simms and Mike Florio analyze George Pickens' contract situation with the Dallas Cowboys, examining Jerry Jones' comments on the matter and how things could play out.
Video Transcript
The one thing that George Pickens and Micah Parsons have in common is they're represented by the same agent.
Yes.
David Moolugetta.
Right.
That was, that was something, as Pickens began to ascend last year, that was something that we were talking about.
Uh-oh, it's gonna be Jerry versus David round two.
Here's Jones from his Friday bus session on wanting to keep Pickens around and negotiating with David Moolugetta, or negotiating directly with Pickens as the case may be.
Here's Jerry.
Regarding his representation, I, I can clearly work with his agent, not clearly to you, but clearly, to me.
I have, no issues.
we haven't met, as you well know.
but we haven't met, but to the end that we can have discussion about him and other players that he represents.
we understand the angst that's there, how he's representing, and his goals of maximizing the dollars.
and he clearly is accomplished enough to know the, alternative to that is our job of managing the club and the salary cap and getting as much mileage out of the cap as we can.
No mistake about how much we want George Pickens to be a part of our future, and I would, want all of our fans to rest assured, that I have every intention of working very, good with his agent.
Yeah, you know, he probably, probably said something similar about Michael Parsons at some point over the past few years, but if you do a long-term deal with Parsons, you're gonna structure it in a way that reduces the salary cap number below 27.3 million, which is the franchise tag number.
And you mentioned the market, it's 40.
I, I went over the weekend position by position under the franchise tag, top of the market versus the franchise tag.
For some of them, the gap isn't glaring.
Right.
For receiver- Glaring it's ridiculous.
Glaring.
For quarterback, it's ridiculous.
For cornerback, it's ridiculous.
For multiple positions, the gap is like, what in the hell?
How did this happen?
And I hope when they inevitably, over the next couple of weeks, elect a new executive director of the NFL Players Association, and the NFL swoops in quickly with its proposal for 18 games, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the lockout way.
I hope that the NFLPA, not that the franchise tag's ever gonna go away, but good Lord, can we make the franchise tag better reflect the current market dynamics?
27.3. Who's making 27.3 that's an elite receiver?
Who the hell's making 27.3?
They're all getting at least 30, if not at least 35 at this point.
Well, yeah, I, I agree.
there's some damn good receivers around 27 million, but not where George Pickens wants to be.
They're You're in the DJ Moore, Jaylen Waddle conversation.
Tee Higgins at 28 million, right?
The So yes, it's, it's good football players.
But George Pickens is looking at it going, "No, no, I, I'm the most talented receiver in football."
That's what he thinks, and he has every right to think that.
He's not crazy for thinking that.
We know it.
It's real.
He's going, "Wait, Ja'Marr Chase is making 40.
I'm taller.
I might be every bit as fast, if not faster.
I just haven't been with the Bengals and Joe Burrow.
You saw one year I had with Dak Prescott.
Look what I did."
CD He's going, "Wait, CeeDee Lamb's awesome."
And I agree, CeeDee Lamb's really good, but he's looking across the field going, "He's not as good as me.
He's making 35.
I'm, I'm certainly worth more than that."
That's not That's, that's for sure.
And then he can go to Jerry and with David Moolugetta and turn on the film and go, "Hey, look, Jerry, look, when CD's over here and I'm over here, look at the defense.
They all go to me.
They all double team me.
Look, oh, game one, oh, they all double team me.
Game two, oh, they all double team I'm the freaking man."
And he's gonna be able to say that, and there's gonna be plenty of visual evidence to back it up, and that's where, yeah, the rubber doesn't hit the road the right damn way here with 27 million for a guy of George Pickens' stature.
No way.
We had a fairly spirited discussion about this on Tuesday at the scouting combine, Shereen Williams, Miles Simmons, and I. Shereen believes CeeDee Lamb's better than George Pickens, and I reminded her gently that your film study suggests that Pickens is better.
Pickens is more feared.
Pickens is the guy who's demanding the extra attention- Definitely and sometimes beating it.
Definitely.
Look at what David Flannoy did when Remember the- Exactly the, the second Like, La- Lamb was- Yes out of a game- He was out, right Flannoy just went off.
Right.
Why?
'Cause they were doing everything they could to keep George Pickens from killing them.
Exactly right.
W- was that the Lions game late in the year?
I can't remember exactly who the hell they were playing there that we were, with that, that game.
But yes, th- that's exactly the point.
He got beneficial looks and, and he- Ryan Flannoy Ryan Flannoy got- David, sorry, Ryan, David.
George Pickens got double-teamed- Did I say David?
everywhere.
I think you might have, but, but regardless, yes- Sorry that's what a great receiver can do.
He can open up an offense.
He can command attention.
He can make a defense almost predictable because they're so worried about what you can do, there's only so many defenses they can play to protect against that receiver going deep and doing that.
So that's the value of that guy.
but yes, the, the George Pickens, his talent is, it's up there with anybody in football.
Yeah, and we saw how Jerry went on and on about George Pickens the night that he tore up the Raiders in the Monday night game, how it was poetic and it was like an opera, which makes absolutely no sense.
It was the Detroit game, December 4.
Yeah.
Nine catches for- Thoughts out 115 yards- Right for Ryan Flannoy 'cause-Was that when CeeDee Lamb got a concussion?
Yeah.
Was that, was that- Lamb was going off too.
They were so worried about George Pickens- Yeah Lamb was going off, then he got hurt, and then they were like, "Let's go all in more on stopping Pickens," and Flournoy's like, "I'm not that bad.
I can still get open here, too."
And he tore them apart.
And they bo- Lamb, even though he didn't play the whole game, I think he had, like, 100 yards at halftime before he got hurt.
And Flournoy- Yeah took advantage of the second half and got 100 yards in the second half of the football game.
Yeah.
Six for 121 for Lamb that night, and that's funny.
You know, it feels like it was forever ago.
It does.
It was three months ago.
And it was that Thursday night game after Thanksgiving- Yeah and that's when I was climbing aboard the Cowboys bandwagon.
Yeah, we know.
That's when I was starting to think- The Eagles, Cowboys "Hey, the Cowboys could do something this year."
You were like the village bicycle there for a while.
You were looking for everybody to give you a ride.
I know.
I'm like Snoop.
I'm like Snoop.
You send me the jersey, I'll wear it, baby.
Yeah.
Okay.
but, yeah.
Well, hey, just it's It, it was I, I wanted to see George Pickens flourish because I've been an early adopter- You were of George Pickens, and I believe that his talents were wasted.
We had the conversation last week about how, you know, he's got And, and this is the problem, and I, and I'm glad we came back here.
What he needs to do, I think I think back to the Eric Burkhardt manifesto when Kyler Murray was up for a new contract.
Not that I would recommend a single-spaced, small font, you-need-a-microscope-to-read-it tweet.
Remember that?
Yes.
That thing that was like, you know, a million reasons why Kyler Murray won't play unless he gets a new contract.
But you gotta do something now to get everyone's attention, and you have to explain it in a very clear and compelling way.
The problem is because Pickens' reputation took a hit during his time in Pittsburgh, it's gonna be hard for him to do it.
And my position is any great receiver that was playing for the Steelers from 2022 through 2024 would be viewed the same way.
Randy Moss would be viewed the same way, 'cause he would've eventually lost his mind and/or his shit if he was catching passes from Kenny Pickett, Justin Fields, and Russell Wilson, and they weren't throwing to him- Yeah as often as they could.
No, you're right.
And they weren't showcasing him in the offense the way they should have.
I don't disagree.
You have an elite talent that you're not using.
At some point, that guy is gonna say, "What the hell is going on here?"
Yes, I, I think you're, you're totally right about that.
I think every top receiver just about in the history of time would've went crazy s- in there in Pittsburgh and, and not getting the ball.
The only one I think that I think of when you, when you said it, I go, Larry Fitzgerald would've found a nice way to quietly keep it to himself instead of giving the ball- He'd just would've retired right?
Something.
He just would've retired.
But everybody else, whether it's T.O., Antonio Brown, whoever, Mike Evans in his prime, they all would've been annoyed with how they were used with Pittsburgh in, in a similar situation to George Pickens.
But that works against him now because that's what's gonna happen, and, and it, it, it Sharina and I have argued a little bit.
Good.
But- Good do you know, 'cause she brought up, she brought up, "Oh, he was fined multiple times."
It's like, well, what I haven't even s- I Multiple t- like that, d- like let's not fall for the Cowboys'- Yeah effort- Right to engage in PR.
Yes.
Right?
And see, that's the thing.
They either value this guy and want him on the team or they don't.
And I would say to you, Jerry, if you truly value this guy, don't play games.
Don't, don't You don't have to win every negotiation.
Sometimes the win is properly paying a player to the point where he's excited to be there, and he's motivated to get everything out of his ability, and he's gonna go all out and all in, in the traditional way, not the way that you made us think that it meant.
But he's gonna be as happy as he can be 'cause you're right, he's not gonna play for 27, and if he does show up for 27, what's he gonna do?
Yeah.
"Oh, I have a, I have a hamstring-" Exactly.
Right "injury."
He's gonna make life hard.
"Oh, my back's stiff."
And he's gonna just kick the can through 2026 and do it all over again next year.
I, I think so, too.
That, that's, that's again, bring us full circle here.
I know we gotta go to break and all that, but yeah, tha-that's where they gotta figure out this situation first before they can sit there and say, "Hey, we're gonna spend big in free agency and do whatever."
They gotta figure out how much money they're gonna allot towards him and, and of course that looks like if, you know, George Pickens has his way, it's gonna be north of 40 million a year.
And I'm telling you, at some point, not right now, maybe not next year, the over-under is a year and a half.
They're gonna have to choose between Pickens and CeeDee Lamb.
Yeah.
Are you asking me?
No, I'm making the- Oh.
I've made the point- Okay.
Okay and I wanted to see what your reaction is.
No, I- But my point is- Yeah at some point in the next two years, they're gonna have to choose between one of th- one or the other like they did with Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb.
Definitely.
Definitely.
Right, yes.
And as it stands right now and where they are, I mean, you, you know who I think's more talented.
Now, well, off the field and will he be a professional and all of those type of things, those are things that they're gonna know better than me, for sure.
But what we saw this year is they love him, they've been saying they love him, and he certainly seemed to fit into that Dallas Cowboy culture.
My question is are they equipped to make a reliable and accurate decision based upon the available information as to whether he can be trusted- Mm-hmm with the kind of contract that would put all the eggs in the George Pickens basket?
Yeah.
Can he be?
They're the o- they're the only ones who, who are in a position to do it.
Can they do it?
Will they make a good decision, yes or no, when the time comes to choose between Pickens and Lamb?
But I think between the two Hell, the stuff that Jerry Jones said about George Pickens, I've never seen him say that about CeeDee Lamb.
That's when I first thought, at some point they're gonna have to choose between one or the other.
And if I'm CeeDee Lamb, when Jerry's saying all that stuff, I'm thinking, "Well, shit, he never said that about me."
So i-i-it, it's There's a lot there, and the first question, can they make George Pickens happy?
Can they get him signed to a long-term deal?
That's gonna be one of the stories of the coming weeks, and we'll see.
You know, I just feel like the Cowboys are gonna screw it up.
History tells us they're gonna screw it up, and whatever the end result is, they're, they're gonna declare victory.
Yeah.
Well, you know, typically this is the reason the Cowboys have been the Cowboys.
We've t-talked about this a lot.
The Eagles have been able to get in, out in front of these type of situations.
They never let them get out of hand, and they never, you know, cause problems with their football team.
Dallas, on the other hand, seems to do this every other year, if not every year, and it affects their football team, whether they wanna say it or not.
And then it becomes a circus, and then Chris Simms says circuses don't win Super Bowls.
They got him for 3.65 million last year.
I'm sure that's what galls them.
Isn't 27 good enough?
He only made 3.65 last year.
That And that last point before we break, because I knew this was gonna be the reaction on Twitter when I made the argument on Saturday night that the franchise tag is too low for multiple positions.
Because when people see 27.3, they think, "Oh, oh, what a shame.
How will he ever, h-how will he ever feed his family with 27.3?"
But that's not the point.
The point is what's the guy worth?
What's he truly worth?
Is he getting his value?
He's got a limited amount of time in his life to get this kind of value for skills that a team needs.
You gotta draw the line.
You gotta hold firm.
And the fans need to understand that this is about getting fair value because every dollar he doesn't get in fair value is another dollar that funds Jerry Jones' super yacht maintenance budget.
Talk about busting the budget.
You wanna bust a budget, try taking care of a 250-foot yacht, a million bucks a week, every week, every year, until you sell the damn thing
