George Pickens is playing his way into a great contract. After being traded to the Dallas Cowboys, the wide receiver has balled out this season. Pickens is having a career season in Dallas, lining up with his contract expiring this season. If all goes well, the wide receiver should be set to get a big contract this offseason.
There's one potential roadblock to that, though, and it has nothing to do with Pickens. As you may recall, the Cowboys made headlines last offseason by trading Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers. The trade came about due to a dispute between Parsons' agent David Mulugheta and Dallas owner Jerry Jones. With the two sides failing to reach an agreement, the front office decided to cut their losses and traded Parsons to recoup some value.
How does this affect Pickens? Well, the Cowboys WR is also represented by Mulugheta. Given the apparent bad blood between Mulugheta and Jones, it's fair to wonder if the agent's presence will affect negotiations. However, based on Dianna Russini's report, this won't be an issue for both sides.
“And because nothing in the NFL is ever simple — or boring — guess who his (Pickens) representative is?” Russini wrote for The Athletic. “NFL superagent David Mulugheta. Yep. The same agent who represents Micah Parsons. The same agent Jerry Jones said he didn’t know and didn’t want to talk to during Parsons’ extension discussions over the summer. From what I’m told, there’s no drama brewing here; everyone is expected to handle it professionally.”
Through eleven games this season, Pickens has already racked up 1,054 yards (second in the NFL) and eight touchdowns (third) on 67 catches. Brought in initially to be the WR2 to CeeDee Lamb, Pickens has played himself into a WR1B role for the Cowboys. Against the Philadelphia Eagles, Pickens hauled in nine catches for 146 yards and one touchdown. Those were similar numbers to his previous game against the Raiders.
The Cowboys' penchant for prolonging contract extension talks could prove to be the bigger hurdle than Pickens' agent. However, Dallas should have more pressure this time around, as Pickens' contract expires after this year. We'll see how the Cowboys attack Pickens' free agency this offseason.
