Why Cowboys’ George Pickens shouldn’t make more money than CeeDee Lamb on next contract

The good news is Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens is at mandatory minicamp. However, the team plans to slow-play his activities to avoid injury. And here is why Pickens should not make more money than teammate CeeDee Lamb on his next Cowboys contract.

The four-year veteran soared in his first season with the Cowboys. He caught 93 passes for 1,429 yards with nine touchdowns. Clearly, he was the Cowboys’ most effective weapon after a decent, but not awe-inspiring, three years with the Steelers.

But payday needs to happen at some point. Pickens seems to believe he’s done all he needed to do to earn the cash truck delivery. The Cowboys apparently want to see more.

Is Cowboys WR George Pickens more valuable than CeeDee Lamb?

Lamb totaled 75 catches for 1,077 yards last year. He also had a nearly invisible three touchdowns. And one of those was almost an accidental score against the Commanders.

However, Lamb has strong reasons to earn more dough than Pickens. He signed a four-year, $136 million deal in 2024. Currently, Lamb is the fifth-highest paid receiver in the NFL at $34 million per year, according to spotrac.com. He trails Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Ja’Marr Chase, Drake London, and Justin Jefferson.

Meanwhile, Pickens stands at No. 16, earning $28 million this year.

The first thing to consider is a career overview. Every year of Lamb’s NFL career has been exceptional. He has been one of the league’s best threats since his rookie year in 2020.

On the other side of the coin, Pickens’ 2025 season stands as an outlier. And NFL teams should never pay players based on outlier seasons. Pickens exceeded all expectations last year. But he hasn’t shown he can be that level of receiver for his whole career.

So the first reason Lamb should be paid more is his career accomplishments thus far.

CeeDee Lamb has a better teammate history

The Cowboys know they have a gem in Lamb. Even when things didn’t go fully his way last year, Lamb stood out as a teammate. He got support from his head coach even after some disturbing drops, according to the Dallas Morning News.

“CeeDee is not a good player,” Schottenheimer said late last season. “He’s an incredible player. I think the biggest thing for CeeDee is to know we love him. We trust him. The ball is going to keep coming his way.

“There are some weeks you have great games and other weeks where you’re like, ‘Hey, I didn’t play as good as I can play,’ but when we start drawing plays for Kansas City – I’ll give them a heads up – there will be a lot going to No. 88.”

Had the shoe been on the other foot, with Pickens dropping the football, the Cowboys would likely have supported Pickens with words. But would the ball have kept coming his way? Less likely.

Reason No. 2: It’s the level of trust that makes Lamb more valuable than Pickens.

Paying George Pickens more than CeeDee Lamb would hurt the roster

Teams can’t just throw tons of cash at one position and not pay down the road. The salary cap won’t allow it. Now imagine a team breaking the bank for its quarterback, and following up with the same type of investment in two receivers.

For Pickens to make more than Lamb, that means, let’s say, $35 million a year. That means the Cowboys would be paying — wait for it — $129 million for just three players. Yep. That’s 60 big eggs in Dak’s basket, 35 for Pickens, and 34 for Lamb.

Yes, the Cowboys can scramble the basket with sleight-of-hand restructuring. But it doesn’t take a salary-cap mathematician to understand that it’s going to be difficult to build a roster that is Super Bowl worthy when you have that much money tied up in three players. And they’re all on one side of the football.

Where this shows up is when a defensive standout wants to be paid. That player might wind up leaving as a free agent because too much money is tied up in three guys.

Another issue is injury. If the Cowboys pay that much money to those three guys, and one of them gets hurt, there likely won’t be enough talent on the rest of the roster to pick up the slack. Even a relatively short-term injury of a month could be devastating if it led to four straight losses.

Reason No. 3: Paying Pickens more than Lamb puts too much financial strain on the team.

Overall, the Cowboys need to pay Pickens as little per year as they can possibly pay and still keep him. Yes, it adds up to another Jerry Jones contract saga. But hey, that’s who the Cowboys are, right?

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