Would the Cowboys draft a wide receiver in the first round?

The Cowboys won’t negotiate with George Pickens in 2026, forcing him to play on the franchise tag. That isn't likely to make the Pro Bowl wide receiver happy.

A trade, followed quickly by a long-term contract, would.

The Cowboys need defensive help in the worst way to improve a unit that ranked last in the NFL in surrendering a team-record 511 points. And they have two first-round draft picks to help the defense in a big way.

Surely they wouldn't consider using one on an offense that ranked second in yards and seventh in points. Right?

"That's alive and well. Given the right circumstances, you have to look at offense," Jerry Jones said, via Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

In 2020, CeeDee Lamb slid to 17th, and the Cowboys, despite needing defensive help, selected the Oklahoma wide receiver. Lamb is a better player than any of the first-round defensive players drafted after the Cowboys' pick that year. Only Patrick Queen has made a Pro Bowl among that group of defenders.

The Cowboys have the 12th and 20th selections this year.

They had Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson and Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate among their top-30 pre-draft visitors. Tyson could be an option at 12 and Tate an option at 20.

Executive vice president Stephen Jones was asked how the decision not to reward Pickens with a long-term deal affects the Cowboys' draft strategy.

"That’s all part of the global picture," Stephen Jones said, via Schuyler Dixon of the Associated Press. "Certainly, you’re always looking at that. It’s just like we did when we took CeeDee Lamb. We had some really good receivers on this team, but we took him. It would certainly be no different as we look at the board and our number gets called to pick, and we’ll make that decision at that point. We’re certainly not opposed to taking the best player on our board. That’s usually where we’ve had our most success is doing that. As Jerry said, we were all set to go defense in that particular draft and CeeDee Lamb was sitting there and that’s the guy we went with. It’s turned out to be a great selection for us."

Stephen Jones would not address whether the team would give Pickens a head's up if it decides to pick a wide receiver.

"We don't want to get into the weeds like that today," he said. "We'll have a lot of options, and we'll obviously address those types of situations if they happen to come about. Certainly we go over all our contingencies and how we would handle something or what we would do. But to get into the detail of that, I don't think it's productive today."