With the official news of the Dallas Cowboys using the nonexclusive tag designation on George Pickens, I thought it would be a good time to revisit all the times this front office has used the tag dating back all the way to Flozell Adams.
The franchise tag was first implemented by the league in 1993, the Cowboys didn’t opt to use it on anyone until 2002 on Adams.
Since then, though, it has been used by them 12 different times, with the most recent before Pickens being used on Tony Pollard in 2023.
Mixed Results
So, dating all the way back to 2002, when they first used the tag on Adams, this team has had mixed results when using it. Sometimes it went their way, and sometimes it did not.
So just a quick recap of who they have used the tag on since 2002, like I noted Flozell Adams was the first player they placed it on, followed by Ken Hamlin in 2008, Anthony Spencer twice in 2012 & 13.
Then we all remember Dez Bryant in 2015, DeMarcus Lawrence twice in 2018 and 19, followed by Dak twice in 2020 and 21, and finally the last two before Pickens were Dalton Schultz in 2022 and Tony Pollard in 2023.
In terms of the mixed results, let’s start with the most recent tag they used, Tony Pollard.
The Cowboys placed the franchise tag on him in March 2023, costing them $10.1 million.
Pollard responded with another 1,000-yard season, though his per-carry average showed a significant drop-off. The tag did not result in anything longer than one extra year; Pollard signed with the Tennessee Titans in early 2024.
We know how things worked out for Dak, but it was almost a disaster when he broke his leg in 2020, so we are lucky it turned out the way that it did.
On March 5, 2018, the Cowboys placed the franchise tag on Lawrence, who officially signed it later that day after they were unable to come to terms on a long-term deal.
The next year, in March 2019, the Cowboys placed the franchise tag on Lawrence, making him the highest paid defensive end in the NFL. On April 5, 2019, the Cowboys signed Lawrence to a five-year, $105 million contract with $65 million guaranteed.
He is now a Super Bowl champion with the Seattle Seahawks.
Schultz played on it in 2022, and after he had three touchdowns in the postseason game against the Bucs, they still did not re-sign him. He left for the Houston Texans and had no issues talking about how playing in Dallas was like playing in a zoo.
https://twitter.com/espn/status/1615163023848529927?s=20
The last time things got interesting with a wide receiver though, Dez Bryant threatened to hold out on Dallas before signing a five-year, $70 million contract that included $45 million of guaranteed money on July 15th of 2015.
Dallas would go on to release Dez on April 13th of 2018. Bryant failed to top over 1,000 yards in the two seasons he played with Dallas after signing that deal. Before that, he had over 1,200 yards in three straight years.
Before the tag happened with Dez, it was Spencer twice and Hamlin who at that time, a lot of social media were not around, but Spencer played on the tag twice and then re-signed a one-year deal with Dallas in 2014, and then moved onto the Saints.
As for Hamlin, he signed a six-year, $38 million contract in 2008 and was released on April 2nd of 2010.
So as you can see, the tag has only worked out maybe once or twice before these players get let go after signing a bigger deal.
I think getting a deal with Pickens will be much better than all of these in the end though.
Either way, let’s hope the Cowboys get a deal done with Pickens. The only thing I would rather have is a team take him for those two first round picks, otherwise just get a deal done and focus on the defense.
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a Dallas Cowboys fan, since the 70’s Jerry Jones doesn’t know what he’s doing