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George Pickens #3 of the Dallas Cowboys

Will he or won’t he? As the  Dallas Cowboys prepare for their mandatory minicamp this week at The Star, that’s the major question facing the team and star receiver George Pickens. We know the situation as it stands with Pickens–after a brilliant season in Dallas following his trade from the Steelers, he headed into free agency hopeful of landing a long-term deal with the Cowboys. But the Jerry Jones/Stephen Jones front office shut that down immediately, hitting Pickens with the franchise tag.

Instead of a four-year deal worth $120 million-plus, Pickens was locked into a one-year, $27 million contract. He signed the deal, and though the Cowboys have until July 15 to still tear up the tag contract and give Pickens a contract worthy of the 2025 season he had, he has almost no leverage to force the Joneses to the table.

The only thing Pickens can do, really, is withhold services. He did not show up at any of the Cowboys’ OTAs this month, but those are voluntary. Minicamp is mandatory, and he can be fined for not attending.

George Pickens Not Committed to Attending Cowboys Minicamp

Nick Harris, the Cowboys beat writer of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, caught up with Pickens last week and asked him whether he’d attend–Pickens only shrugged and said, “Uhh…” before a PR flak shut down his answer.

That threw something of a monkey wrench into the Cowboys’ certainty that Pickens would be at minicamp. The team had been saying for months now that they expect Pickens to show for anything mandatory, but this week, that softened from “expect Pickens to show” to “hope Pickens shows.”

Insider Says Cowboys Still Expect George Pickens

Cowboys beat writer Jon Machota of The Athletic, speaking on “The Cowboys Collective” podcast this week, is sticking with “expect.” But at the same time, he is lowering what those expectations are, saying he does not expect Pickens to be a very active participant.

“They still expect him to be there for mandatory minicamp,” Machota said. “But even like Dak was saying, when he is there, if he does show up, don’t expect him to just all the sudden be with the 1s and doing everything. They don’t want him to do too much and all the sudden he suffers a setback or some type of injury and then all the sudden he is going to training camp with some type of issue.

“Even if he is there  next week, don’t expect him to be doing a ton.”

Possible Outcomes for Current Standoff

There are probably three realistic ways this all plays out for George Pickens and the Cowboys:

• Pickens could show up on time on Tuesday, ready to put on his jersey and go through the minicamp as though nothing ever happened. It’s a longshot, but if you’re an optimist, this is the option for you.
• Pickens could show up but with no intention of participating, basically conducting the newly popular NFL “hold-in.” That allows Pickens to express his dissatisfaction with his contract but not get fined.
• Pickens could duck out altogether and not show up at camp. That would be an odd choice, because he would be subject to a fine of $108,000 if he misses all three days of minicamp. If that was his strategy, he could have just not signed the tag deal to begin with, which would mean he would not be susceptible to the fine.