George Pickens has yet to accept the franchise tender

On the first day of the NFL draft, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported that Cowboys receiver George Pickens will sign his one-year, $27.298 million franchise tender.

While he still may, he has not yet done it.

Todd Archer of ESPN reports that Pickens has yet to sign the tender.

Technically, a player simply needs to accept it. That can happen via email, for example. Regardless, until the tender is accepted, the player is not under contract.

Accepting the tender puts the player under contract. He can be fined for skipping the lone annual mandatory minicamp. He can be fined for holding out from training camp, and for skipping preseason games.

There are multiple potential motivations for accepting the tender early. A player could decide to fully commit himself to having a big year, setting the stage for becoming a free agent again the following year.

In Pickens's case, it's more likely that the Cowboys would simply tag him again. By rule, he'd be entitled to a 20-percent increase over his 2026 pay. That's $32.75 million — and still far below the current market rate of $42.15 million annually.

Accepting the tender also would allow the player to be traded. And perhaps the premature news was leaked to goose the possibility of someone offering the Cowboys something for Pickens during the draft.

Here's the most important thing to remember when it comes to a potential Pickens trade. If it happens after July 15, the new team would not be able to sign him to a multi-year contract. That's the deadline that applies to any franchise-tagged player — no multi-year deal after July 15. (It's possible that the player could sign a multi-year offer sheet after July 15; that's never been tested and isn't relevant here, since no one has shown any inclination to potentially give up two first-round picks for Pickens, if an offer sheet isn't matched by the Cowboys.)

In other words, a Micah Parsons-style outcome (with a trade during the preseason) is impossible, unless the new team would take Pickens in August and accept that it's a one-year arrangement with exclusive negotiation rights after the season ends and the ability to tag him again the following year as a fallback.