The Dallas Cowboys have a plan for George Pickens. Cowboys Nation has other ideas. Stephen Jones confirmed the team will use the franchise tag, but fans are already drawing parallels to past contract standoffs.

When a franchise tag is placed on a player, there is a chance that the player might skip the offseason program and training camp. When Stephen Jones was questioned about that, he seemed confident.

“A lot of guys we’ve tagged participated in everything, Dak [Prescott] leading the way. He played under 2 of them. He never missed anything. Hopefully, that will be the case here,” he said.

Dak Prescott was tagged in 2020 and 2021. He received his four-year, $160 million contract one day after the 2021 tag. In 2024, he signed his four-year, $240 million extension the morning of Dallas’ Week 1 game. He still attended every training camp and offseason program.

However, despite Stephen Jones’ confidence, this has not been the case with all players.

Fans not happy with Stephen Jones’ comments

The Cowboys fans’ frustration is only increasing year on year. They think that comparing Dak Prescott to George Pickens is not a fair comparison. A better comparison would be CeeDee Lamb, who did end up skipping the offseason program. “Well, Pickens isn't gonna participate. I can tell u that for sure,” one fan wrote.

That's because fans have seen CeeDee Lamb skip out on the entire 2024 offseason and then finally sign his four-year, $136 million extension. That's why they added, “He won’t play under the tag,” another fan agreed.

Fans are disappointed that the Joneses are unwilling to bring out the checkbook to sign Pickens to a long-term contract.

“What are we doing here? You either trade him or sign him to a multi-year,” one fan chimed in. But it's not that simple for the Cowboys. Pickens will likely look for a contract worth over $30 million, similar to the one Lamb received. The franchise tag can give the Cowboys time to open up cap space. Despite this, another frustrated fan wrote:

“Question- why did no one from the Dallas front office say hey, we would like to try a deal instead of just rushing into tag, and playing under tag? Seems like they're trying to string this along for clicks.”

Another fan predicts an impending danger with Stephen Jones’ comments. George Pickens shares the same agent as Micah Parsons, who was met with similar treatment and then asked to be traded away to the Green Bay Packers.

“Remember, Micah. Same agent. Likely similar result,” the fan predicted.

What are your thoughts on the way the Cowboys franchise is handling the Pickens contract? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Shyam Hari

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar