Pickens has proven indispensable to the Cowboys’ offensive ambitions in 2025, posting 1,420 yards and nine touchdowns in 16 games with his new team. Pickens came as an ideal complement to play broad CeeDee Lamb and lived up to those expectations; after a week, either Pickens or Lamb became Dak Prescott’s favorite target, and both will finish 2025 with 1,000-plus receiving yards.
In 2025, the Cowboys proved they were offense-first, a team that relied heavily on the efforts of Prescott, who was equally dependent on the production from Lamb and Pickens. It would be a shame if Jones risked alienating another key contributor in the negotiating process.
Pickens and Parsons are not comparable players, at least not from an outside perspective. Parsons seemed like the quintessential Cowboy, a player who should only wear one helmet his entire career — that is, until Jones stunned the football world by trading him to NFC rival Green Bay.
Pickens, on the other hand, is a mercurial receiver with a sky-high ceiling that he brushes against only when he’s focused on football. He did so more than ever in 2025, but it didn’t come without some typical drama that seems to follow.
Jones will undoubtedly factor this into negotiations, but given where his team is right now, he’d be foolish to let Pickens join in free agency. To prevent that from happening, he may have to abandon his own normal routine and call Mulugheta. We’ll see if the Parsons experience has informed him on how to move forward, or if we’re in for another drama-filled off-season with the Cowboys.