With the completion of the 2025 NFL season, franchises have already started to look at their next targets and retentions ahead of the new campaign. This stage of the NFL also gives franchises the ability to tag a player of their choice, a mechanism that helps teams hold onto a player of their choice who is free agency bound, essentially stopping the player from joining a new side while also limiting other franchises from poaching free agents.
One of the latest teams to tag their player is the Dallas Cowboys’ standout wide receiver George Pickens. This decision comes on the backdrop of the Dallas-based side deciding to hold on to him amidst his contract expiration.
This decision has prompted ESPN analyst and First Take show star Stephen A. Smith to comment on the entire Cowboys-Pickens Tag situation. Spoiler alert, he’s not a big fan of the situation.
Smith, on the first take, did not hold back in what he thinks is not an apt call from the owner, president, and general manager of the Cowboys. Smith emphasized his skepticism surrounding the Dallas-based franchise’s current verdict.
He also advised the franchise to either keep him long-term or let go of his services, implying that Pickens, during his time with the Cowboys, will look at other prospective options, or, as he stated, “business decisions.”
Having (George) Pickens under a franchise tag. I don’t know how good that is for the Cowboys. If he’s worried about his long-term decisions about his long-term future, he’s going to go out there and make what they call business decisions, Smith stated on the show (0:00).
“I don’t like the fact that they’re in a position to do this to George Pickens, keep him long-term or let him go, because chances are if he’s under a franchise tag, again, Peter, he’s going to be out there making business decisions. We’ve seen him make what we deem to be business decisions before this situation. Imagine what he’s going to be if you franchise tag him”, he further elaborated (0:43).
George Pickens had a standout 2025 NFL regular season with the Dallas Cowboys, where he recorded 93 receptions on 137 targets for 1,429 yards and 9 touchdowns over 17 games, and it’s no surprise that the Cowboys are vying to tag him.
How Does An NFL Franchise Tag Work?
While we know that the tag is applied only to free agent players of the highest value, there are a few types of tags that franchises in the league still apply. As per ESPN, tags are primarily of three types: non-exclusive, exclusive, and transition tags.
Non-exclusive tags allow players to ink contracts with other teams, but the mother team has to either match the offer of the other team or get a compensation of two first-round draft picks.
The exclusive tag gives the player and his respective agent no such leeway of contacting other teams, staying with the mother franchise, while a transition tag is very similar to a non-exclusive tag, except the mother team gets the feature of matching the outside team’s offer.
It is yet to be seen what kind of tags Jerry Jones and management will enable while holding onto Pickens.
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