Cowboys WR George Pickens signs his franchise tag – Jon Machota, The Athletic
The George Pickens franchise tag drama has ended.
Dallas Cowboys Pro Bowl wide receiver George Pickens signed his franchise tag tender Wednesday. While Pickens would prefer a long-term contract, the tag will pay him a guaranteed $27.3 million for the 2026 season.
The Cowboys have said they have no interest in negotiating a long-term deal at this time. They would like to see him play well for a second season with franchise quarterback Dak Prescott and star wide receiver CeeDee Lamb before making that
larger financial commitment.
By signing the tag, Pickens allows the Cowboys to trade him, but they have no interest in that move.
Malachi Lawrence reunites with ex-UCF coach as Cowboys’ first-round pick – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com
Malachi Lawrence already had ties to the Cowboys before he was drafted.
FRISCO, Texas — Malachi Lawrence won’t be a stranger in a foreign land as he reports to rookie minicamp for the Dallas Cowboys, at least not entirely. From the moment he got the call as the 23rd-overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, he realized he’d be reunited with a familiar face on the coaching staff.
Demeitre Brim, the newly-hired Cowboys assistant defensive line coach, was poached from the collegiate ranks by defensive coordinator Christian Parker — a former UCF defensive lineman turned position coach for the Golden Knights in 2025.
And that’s where he and Lawrence met and formed a bond that ultimately helped the Louisville native end up right where Brim is currently: in Dallas and tasked with helping to turn around the Cowboys’ defense in 2026 and beyond.
“For me, it’s a little bit more personal for me because I played for UCF as well,” Brim told DallasCowboys.com. “So, being able to get into the building and to tell him what the program means to us, and a lot of other former alumni that were coaching last year — we were able to build a relationship off of that. And me being a former player, and kind of a younger player, in that sense.
“… It was good to get around him and to tell him what we expect[ed] of him [at UCF]. I spent a lot of time with him. … He means a lot to me as well.”
Lawrence played all four seasons at UCF, a nugget that helped to influence the Cowboys’ decision to draft him in a world full of NIL portal transfers, creating history in the process by making him the first-ever UCF player to be selected in the first round by Dallas; and only the fifth in school history taken in that round.
Report: Cowboys tried to trade for Texans’ Pro Bowl LB before Dee Winters deal – Todd Brock, Cowboys Wire
Dallas tried to add Azeez Al-Shaair to their linebacker room.
The Cowboys landed a linebacker on Day 2 of the NFL draft, but he wasn’t a hot up-and-coming college prospect. In fact, he apparently wasn’t even the team’s first choice.
According to ESPN’s Todd Archer and NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, the Cowboys targeted Houston’s Azeez Al-Shaair before landing on a different target.
Dallas traded a fifth-round pick on Friday — during the draft — to the 49ers in exchange for three-year veteran Dee Winters, a former TCU product who started all 17 games last year for San Francisco and led that club’s defense in both tackles and TFLs.
Winters is an immediate upgrade for a Cowboys linebacker corps that’s thin on experience and heavy on question marks. DeMarvion Overshown is the leader of the group but has been healthy enough to appear in just 19 out of 51 games since being drafted. Shemar James and Justin Barron were the only other linebackers on the Dallas roster entering draft weekend. But with more pressing needs in the secondary and at edge rusher, the organization elected to use their early selections on those spots and look to bring in a veteran linebacker via a trade.
Cowboys Have 53-Man Roster Upset Brewing With Physical Freak UDFA Michael Trigg – Mike Moraitis, Cowboys On SI
Michael Trigg will have a lot of eyes on him in training camp.
A 53-man roster upset brewing?
The deck is always stacked against undrafted free agents like Trigg, and that is especially true when it comes to a UDFA tight end making the Cowboys’ roster.
Dallas is stacked at tight end with Jake Ferguson, Brevyn Spann-Ford and Luke Schoonmaker, and Princeton Fant is no slouch as competition for the TE4 spot if Dallas decides to keep that many There’s no shortage of athleticism in this group, either.
But Trigg has long had the eye of the Cowboys, which is another reason why it was surprising Dallas didn’t spring for him in the draft.
Cowboys tight ends coach Lunda Wells attended the Baylor Pro Day in March and “was by Trigg’s side for the majority” of it, according to Joseph Hoyt of the Dallas Morning News.
Hoyt went on to say that Trigg was “considered among the best tight ends in the 2026 NFL Draft.”
Seeing as how he went undrafted, it’s pretty clear many teams did not agree with that idea. But we definitely cannot say the Cowboys didn’t, as their failure to draft him is hardly an indication of how the team feels about Trigg because Dallas was always unlikely to use a draft pick on a tight end given the current state of their room.
But the Cowboys got Trigg anyway and he’ll be someone we’ll be watching throughout the offseason as he makes his push to defy the odds and land on the initial 53-man roster in late August.
Detailing Cowboys’ scouting process to land Caleb Downs – Tommy Yarrish, DallasCowboys.com
Here’s what went into the Cowboys drafting Caleb Downs.
FRISCO, Texas – As Cowboys southeast area scout Eric Ellingworth was going through his region before the 2023 NFL Draft, he stopped at East Tennessee State and chatted with running backs coach and pro liaison Gary Downs.
His trip was in part to see Jacob Saylors, an ETSU running back who went undrafted in 2023 and now plays for the Detroit Lions. While there, he learned about Gary’s son, Caleb, a five-star prospect committed to Nick Saban and Alabama.
Caleb was not just any coaches son. As a senior in high school at Mill Creek in Hoschton, Georgia, Downs was already going through Alabama’s defensive installs before he even stepped foot on campus. When he finally did, it was clear the work paid off.
“I got to see him as a freshman there and he was, in a very talented defensive back room, he stood out,” Ellingworth said. “I was ready to write that report right then and there, and then drooling at the opportunity to do it.”
Then Alabama head coach Nick Saban was in his final season coaching the Crimson Tide. Under his watch over 17 years in Tuscaloosa, 28 defensive backs heard their names called in the NFL Draft. Minkah Fitzpatrick, Patrick Surtain, Trevon Diggs and Marlon Humphrey are just some of the names he’s helped produce. Even though Downs and Saban spent just one year together, his name is mentioned in the upper echelon of players to come through that program.
“For Caleb specifically, you hear things like: ‘Smartest D-back that coach Saban has ever coached.’ You think of the number of not just really talented players, but really smart guys, I mean, that’s a difficult defense to master… Caleb has everything down…” Ellingworth said.
“His brain works so well because he loves football so much and prepares at a different rate.”
Daily Discussion Question: Did you believe that the Cowboys would be able to draft Caleb Downs a week ago?
