Stephen Jones: It will be "real difficult" to keep both George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb long term
Not even a month ago, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones called it “realistic” for the team to think it can keep CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens long term. This week, Jones admitted keeping both wide receivers beyond 2026 will be challenging.
“I don’t know of any teams that really can pay two top receivers top of the market, so that’s gonna be a real difficult situation as we move forward,” Jones told the DLLS Cowboys podcast. “We’ve managed to figure out how we can do it for this year. If everything works out the way we think it is, [in] which CeeDee and George both have huge years again, then it’ll be a bigger challenge next year.”
Before the 2024 season, Lamb signed a four-year, $136 million extension. His $34 million annual average ranks sixth at the position.
Pickens will play this season under the one-year, $27.3 million franchise tag. He is coming off a career year when he made 93 catches for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns.
“George is really wanting to put back-to-back years on top of one another, so it’ll help his market,” Jones said. “And certainly, I know at some point — as does every player in this league — will want to be rewarded with a long-term contract. So that certainly puts pressure on us to have a unique situation there at wide receiver.”
The Bengals managed to pay Ja’Marr Chase (four-year, $161 million extension signed in 2025) and Tee Higgins (four-year, $115 million extension signed in 2025), and the Eagles paid A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith before trading Brown this offseason. But Pickens will want — and will deserve — more than Higgins or Smith if he has another year like last year.
The Cowboys hope they face that problem in the offseason, because that will mean Lamb and Pickens both had solid seasons again.
“[Cowboys defensive coordinator] Christian Parker will tell you, who went against us twice a year, what a challenge that it was for the Eagles when they played us, and he was on the defensive side of the ball trying to defend Dak [Prescott] and those two receivers,” Jones said.
