Cowboys Keeping Both CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens Beyond 2026 is 'Real Difficult,' Stephen Jones Says

The Dallas Cowboys have one of the NFL's best one-two punches at receiver in CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, if not the best.

Keeping both beyond 2026 may not be realistic, however.

"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," executive vice president Stephen Jones said on 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."

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Pickens, 25, was a revelation in his first season with the Cowboys, catching 93 passes for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns. But he'll play the 2026 campaign on the franchise tag and will assuredly hit free agency next offseason, while Lamb re-signed in 2024 on a four-year, $136 million deal and is locked in place through the 2028 campaign.

Should Pickens have another elite season, re-signing him on the type of top-end contract he would be expecting would leave the Cowboys with limited resources to address other positions, though other teams have done so (think the Cincinnati Bengals with Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins).

"George is really wanting to put back-to-back years on top of one another, so it'll help his market," Jones noted. "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."