​DALLAS — George Pickens will not enter the 2026 NFL season with a multiyear deal.The NFL deadline to extend franchise-tagged players came and passed Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET without the Dallas Cowboys reaching a long-term deal with their Pro Bowl receiver.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementPickens will play 2026 on the $27.3 million receiver franchise tag.That was expected.It also makes an immense amount of sense for both sides.Play Yahoo’s new College Fantasy Football game: Create or join a league now!And while fans may think this is yet another example of the Cowboys’ recurring theme of not extending their players early, this case is different.So expect training camp — when the Cowboys have welcomed their fair share of contract-related drama in recent years — to unfold differently as well.This is not simply a repeat of what has happened across the last decade to edge rusher Micah Parsons, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb or running back Ezekiel Elliott as they held out (or in Parsons’ case, held in) for a deal. This is also not a repeat of franchise-tagged recent history for quarterback Dak Prescott, tight end Dalton Schultz or edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence.Let’s break it down.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Cowboys acquired Pickens from the Pittsburgh Steelers last May, sending Pittsburgh a 2026 third-round pick while swapping 2027 sixth- and seventh-round picks. Pickens balled out in his debut Dallas season, catching 93 passes for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns. He delighted fans with his acrobatic catches and his ability to take over games. Viewing Pickens’ value through that narrow lens, fans have reason to wonder why the Cowboys wouldn’t want to secure an elite talent sooner rather than later amid a skyrocketing receiver market.But front offices consider more than a narrow lens.Unlike Prescott, Lawrence, Schultz, Elliott, Parsons and Lamb, Pickens has showcased on-field success for only one year in Dallas. His performance and off-field behavior varied in three prior years with Pittsburgh, Pickens sandwiching an 1,140-yard Steelers season with productions of 801 and 900 yards. In none of his three Pittsburgh seasons did he score more than five touchdowns.So while confidence exists in Pickens’ ability to sustain the performance, the Cowboys have reason to seek a larger sample size. Is the 1,400-yard, nine-touchdown season Pickens’ ceiling teaming up with Prescott and Lamb, or is it the floor? And while he was less of a distraction off the field in Dallas than he had been at times in Pittsburgh, will questions about his punctuality and reliability grow or dissipate in Dallas Year 2?Pickens, too, has a chance to raise his value significantly by showing last year was not a fluke.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSo consider the sample size of Pickens the Cowboy vs. his predecessors who weren’t extended early as one major difference, and perhaps the top reason why the lead-up to Wednesday’s deadline appears to have been much qu