Pickens contract talks have become a 'chess game'
Mike Florio, Charean Williams and Myles Simmons analyze George Pickens' contract situation with the Dallas Cowboys and examine if the team will eventually sign the receiver to a long-term deal.
Video Transcript
Let's hear a little from Executive VP Stephen Jones, from his comments here in Indianapolis a day ago on the George Pickens contract situation.
You know, we want Pickens here.
Think the world of him.
want him here, love him, and I think he wants to be here, so all that's a plus.
You've put guys on the tag before, and they've been to everything, Pollard, Schultz- Yeah even Dak, D Law, I think, as, as well.
Yeah, every- we've had people play under the tag, and then we've made deals with people, you know, that have a tag, and can go either way.
And, we'll just, you know, continue to, you know, really analyze the situation and see what's next.
Well, there isn't a whole lot of time to analyze the situation.
It is moving toward the tag deadline, and the question becomes if they do it And this really is a chess game, and they, they've got, they've got the move, right?
You hit the clock.
When, when you play chess, like, you hit a clock, and you, you move, and then you hit the clock- Yeah!
I don't know.
But it's their move, and they're gonna put George Pickens in check, and then he's gonna have a move to make.
And the same CBA that gives them the ability to apply the franchise tag gives him the ability to stay away from anything and everything until he accepts the tender.
And you can skip the entire off-season program.
You're not, you're not employed by the team.
I, I say this at least once a year: He'll be no more employed by the team than any of us are.
Yeah.
So you stay away from the off-season, stay away from training camp, stay away from pre-season.
You can show up literally days before the start of the regular season, accept the tender, and get your full 28 million.
Will he do that?
Guys like Dak Prescott, and this falls into the Kirk Cousins bucket as well, and Cousins kind of got on me a little bit back during Super Bowl week.
He was really feisty that week.
But if you're the quarterback and you're franchise tagged, there's a belief that you show up and you do everything because you need to have a big year, 'cause you need to keep this momentum going.
Right.
And if you stay away from everything and show up five days before the start of the regular season, you're not gonna be ready to go.
You need to be all in if you're the quarterback.
Pickens, players at other positions, can take the position, "I don't need all that, and I'm gonna exert my leverage."
But that's gonna be what he does next.
What will he do?
And I try to draw comparisons to Michael Parsons, but it's fundamentally different because after July 15, you can't, you can't squeeze Jerry into trading George Pickens because he can't get a long-term deal after July 15 from a new team.
Yes.
So that's where the potential for another Michael Parsons You know, "I'll show up.
I'll, I'll- I'm injured.
I'm injured, or I'm injured, or I'm actually injured," whatever the case may be.
"I've got some chronic issue because I've been playing football since I was six, and it's, it You know, I'm concerned about it."
W- w- the, the thing that got under Jerry's skin last year, it doesn't work for Pickens.
So the challenge for David Mualaga and George Pickens is gonna be to come up with a strategy that will get sufficiently under Jerry's skin to either spark a trade or a contract.
And I don't know what that's gonna be, but I think they're gonna try something.
They're not just gonna sit back and take it.
Yeah, and I think they should, Mike, and, and I think he should get a long-term deal.
There's no question about that.
He's earned that, despite it only being one year with Dallas, but he's earned that long-term deal.
He's earned a chance to, to be paid like the top receivers in the NFL.
But here's the problem.
I'm sorry to interrupt you.
The franchise tag, the convention is And they did this with Dez Bryant.
Yeah.
You apply the tag.
How do we figure out a long-term deal?
We take the tag this year, the tag next year.
That's the floor.
That's fully guaranteed at signing, and we're gonna add in some other stuff from there.
The problem is, if you do that, and I just did the, the math, it's 30.6 million over two years, per year, and the market's still 40.
Yeah.
So they'll, they'll gladly do- a long-term deal with the franchise tag as a starting point because the franchise tag is lagging so far behind the market.
Sure, sure, let's do it.
It's not gonna be good enough.
They're gonna have to go above that.
They're gonna have to get something closer to 40 than 30, I think, to get him to accept a long-term deal.
That, that's the problem.
They're gonna wanna do it on their terms.
They're not gonna wanna give him the, the 40 million per year that Jamar Chase got.
Right.
They're, they're gonna wanna do something that is closer in line to what they think the franchise tag would dictate.
Yeah, but that's, but that's an antiquated model, right?
And if you're Mualaga, that- that's basically your counter is like, "Hey, th- this is, this is old stuff, man.
Like, you're, you're coming at this from the perspective of, I don't know, maybe even three to five years ago, right?"
And it's, it's cur- kind of wild how it's changed in that time, but that's not gonna work now if that's the way that the Cowboys want to approach it.
It, it shouldn't work.
It can't work because, again, as Tua Tagovailoa said, "The market is the market," and if that's the way the Cowboys wanna play it, I mean, that, to me, that, that's a non-starter.
You, you can't, you can't have that kind of number for this kind of a caliber player over the That, no, that, that, that's not gonna work.
I don't think Tua is the best example- I Well- for who, for guys that got a market-level deal.
But- I know, I know he said it- But he's the one who said it but if I'm George Pickens, I'm not gonna carry that around.
I know.
Well, I mean, but shouldn't you, though?
I'll say, I'll say the market is a m- is the market, anonymous.
Yeah, anonymous?
Like Michael Scott.
But the problem I th- I almost feel like that is a better argument because Tua Tagovailoa is not the type of top-flight caliber player, and yet, look at what he got.
But he still got it, and he got it.
So you know what I'm saying?
So, like, if that guy can get it, and granted, quarterback's a different position, but if the market's the market, and that guy gets it, then the market's the market, and I need it.
And he got it without even being in the franchise tag posture.
Yeah.
He got it with one year left on his rookie deal- Yes which is a, in, in hindsight, you know, the Deshaun Watson trade and contract is the single worst transaction in NFL history.
Tua's is close.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The, the only thing that saves the Dolphins is they didn't give up draft picks- Yeah for the privilege of doing this ridiculous contract.
They had no reason to do it, but it proves your point, and it proves Pickens' point: The market is the market, so don't play this franchise tag game with me.
Yeah.
I want a contract that reflects what the market currently is.
Yeah, and a trade may be the best option for the Cowboys.
They improve their defense, they draft a number two receiver, and you can find receivers in the draft.
Maybe that's the way they go.
Maybe that's the way they should go.
And I know Cowboys fans are, are arguing that they've gotta find a way to keep Pickens and, and improve their defense as well, but it's a tough thing to do.
