Overview
- Pickens signed the Cowboys’ one‑year franchise tender for $27.3 million in April and has skipped the voluntary OTA sessions this spring.
- Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer says he both expects and hopes Pickens will report for the mandatory minicamp scheduled for June 16–18, though Pickens has not publicly committed to full participation.
- Because he signed the tender, Pickens would face daily fines that total roughly $107,911 if he misses all three days of the mandatory minicamp.
- The Cowboys plan to limit Pickens’s on‑field reps and ease him back into team work to reduce injury risk, and the club has signaled it will not complete a multiyear extension before the July window.
- Pickens’s All‑Pro production in 2025 (about 1,400 receiving yards) is the reason Dallas retained him on the tag and his attendance this month will shape his leverage and the team’s chemistry going into training camp.