A year after dealing with Micah Parsons’ contentious holdout, the Dallas Cowboys face another potentially tumultuous offseason with another one of their star players.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer was recently asked about George Pickens’ potential participation during the team’s upcoming offseason workouts. Pickens, who was named to his first Pro Bowl during his first season in Dallas, was given a nonexclusive tag by the team earlier this offseason.
Schottenheimer, speaking from the NFL meetings in Phoenix, said that he did not know if Pickens was planning to attend the voluntary workouts.
“And I haven’t pushed that on him,” Schottenheimer said, via ESPN. “I mean, again, we’re all going through the process. It’s almost April. We’re still a couple weeks away. It’s going to play out the way it plays out. Again, it’s all voluntary. We’ll see where it goes.”
Pickens, 25, was traded to Dallas from Pittsburgh last offseason. In 17 games last season, Pickens set single-season highs in catches, yards and touchdowns while matching his career best in yards per reception.
Similar to his years in Pittsburgh, Pickens’ success in Dallas hasn’t come without some turbulence. He and fellow wideout CeeDee Lamb were benched for the start of the Cowboys’ eventual win over the Raiders after missing curfew. Later in the season, Pickens’ again made headlines for the wrong reasons after he failed to give a full effort on several plays during a late-season loss to the Lions.
In Pittsburgh, Pickens also drew criticism after he failed to make a full effort during plays. He was also fined numerous times for unsportsmanlike conduct during his years with the Steelers, who selected him in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
Pickens (who has the same agent as Parsons, who ended up being traded to Green Bay after talks with Dallas fell through) and the Cowboys have not engaged in contract talks since the team placed the $28.8 million tag on him. Because he was given the nonexclusive tag, Pickens could be acquired as a free agent by another team if it was willing to give up two first-round picks or another deal that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones would have to sign off on.
At this point, Schottenheimer doesn’t appear to be too worried about Pickens’ status for voluntary workouts. He also doesn’t appear to be looking too far down the road in terms of Pickens’ future with the team beyond this season.
“Hey look, GP loves it here. We love GP,” Schottenheimer said. “We have plans for GP to be here for a long time, so we’ll let the business side of this thing play out and see where it goes.”
Barring the unexpected, it appears that Pickens will continue to wear the Cowboys’ star in 2026. Whether or not he participates in voluntary workouts, however, is anyone’s guess.
