The Dallas Cowboys are facing a tough decision with George Pickens, set to play the 2026 season under the franchise tag. Especially after the Jaxon Smith-Njigba's contract extension with the 2025 Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks.

Jerry Jones is expected to go all in and offer George Pickens a contract exceeding Jaxon Smith-Njigba's record $168.6 million deal.

Sports analyst Skip Bayless predicted Jones will likely agree to these terms to avoid losing the "box office" and "wow factor" Pickens' brings to the team. 

"He's making 27 to JSN's $42 million. It's still open for negotiation. So he's going to, they're going to go to the table, and they're going to say, Come on, give us $43 million, give us $44 million and Jerry is going to be prone to cave in and give him that." Skip Bayless added.

The Seattle Seahawks and Jaxon Smith-Njigba recently agreed to a historic four-year, $168.6 million contract extension. This deal makes him the highest-paid wide receiver in NFL history by average annual value ($42.15 million), surpassing Ja'Marr Chase.

Coming off a 2025 season where he won NFL Offensive Player of the Year and helped Seattle secure a victory in Super Bowl LX, the Seahawks locked him down through the 2031 season.

With Jones picking George's side, it points to a possible extension similar to Jaxon-Njigba’s. It makes sense due to Pickens' recent career year and the need to secure the top receiver market. 

George Pickens caught 93 passes for 1,429 yards and 9 touchdowns, earning his first Pro Bowl in his career. He was just behind Smith-Njigba, who had scored 10 touchdowns for 1793 receiving yards.

Although Pickens' on-field antics put some spotlight on him in a bad way, Jones had his back, signifying how he was important to the Cowboys' success.

When Jerry Jones defended George Pickens against Richard Sherman

While George Pickens was the best wide receiver for the Cowbous last season, he was also criticized by former players for not giving his best on the field.

Following a 44-30 loss to Detroit Lions in game week 14 of the last season, former Super Bowl winner Richard Sherman questioned his interest to play for the Dallas franchise.

"George Pickens, throughout the game, especially late in the game, just looked uninterested in playing football," Sherman said on Amazon Prime Video's broadcast. "If you want to be the best receiver in the National Football League, you can never be disengaged."

Pickens failed to score any touchdowns in that game and only had 5 receptions for 37 yards. Truly, a performance to forget. Sherman also talked about the uncertainty about his contract extension.

"And if you're Dallas Cowboys, you're looking at him and you're looking to pay him big time receiver money, $40 million you got to look at this tape and say, 'Hey, is this a guy we can trust paying $40 million to show up, regardless of circumstance?' I don't know."

Jerry Jones was quick to defend his player citing, “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a body of work or a season dismissed as quickly as it was with Pickens getting criticized against Detroit. And that’s madness. But I’ll tell you what, he’s had a great week of practice.”

How do you think the whole George Pickens situation is going to pan out? Let us know in the comments!

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Written by

Archana Ramakrishnan

Edited by

Kalp Thaker