Albert Breer on Pickens Back in Dallas, Campbell to Ravens, Vikings GM Search

If George Pickens stays healthy and stays right, then he will get paid.

All right.

Welcome in.

It is the Brew Report for Friday, May 1st, our first Breer report of May 2026.

Happy May, everybody.

We've got plenty to get to on this morning's Breer report and we are going to start with the Dallas Cowboys and George Pickens.

George Pickens has now officially signed his 27.

Million-dollar franchise tender that locks him into the Cowboys, fully guaranteed for 2026.

Functionally, really all this means is that he has to show up to the mandatory stuff now.

So it doesn't mean he has to show up to the offseason program, to OTAs, although I anticipate he would show up to that stuff.

Um, does mean he would have to show up to the veteran mandatory minicamp.

Um, they still have until July 15th to do a long-term deal.

And of course, in any circumstance, now these guys signed contract, he does have to be there for day one of training camp.

Um, so, where does this leave the player and the team?

Well, George Pickens obviously had a fantastic year last year.

He was an all-pro, took advantage of some chances that, that, that were presented to him because of CD Lamb's injury.

Um, and really showed the number one receiver potential that he's had since he was a teenager.

I think everybody has known since he was a true freshman at the University of Georgia, what sort of potential he has.

Um, but there's a reason why he wasn't drafted in the top 10, and it's not just the fact that he was coming back off an ACL.

Um, there's a reason why the Steelers traded him, and And there's a reason now why the Dallas Cowboys have decided to go forward with him on the one-year tender, something that Jerry and Stephen Jones announced, um, at one of their draft press conferences.

And that is that he hasn't been counted on.

He hasn't, you haven't been able to count on him over the course of time, and that goes back to his time as a collegian.

It's why he fell in the draft, a large piece of why he fell in the draft.

It's why the Steelers had a very up and down go with him over 3 years, and that was under Mike Tomlin, who generally can tolerate a lot.

And, you know, I, I think it's a credit to George Pickens, he's bounced back because normally.

Normally, when Mike Tomlin's Steelers would let go of a player, it generally meant you didn't want to touch that player.

Like that player, if he'd worn out his welcome in Pittsburgh, it was gonna be really hard for him to find footing somewhere else.

But again, to George Pickett's credit, he did find that footing in Dallas.

And now I think for the Cowboys, and to me, this is their intention all along when they put the franchise tag on him, it was OK.

We saw you do the right thing.

We saw that you were a good teammate.

We saw that you turned a corner both as a player and a person.

Now show us that it's sustainable.

And I always think back to this line that Troy Brown, the great old Patriots receiver, used to, used to use when we were on TV together, um, back about a decade ago.

He would say that money only makes you more of what you already are.

And so the concern with someone like George Pickens would be that he has one great year, you pay him, and then he reverts.

And to me, like this is where the franchise tag comes in and where you can use that franchise tag to your advantage if you're a team like Dallas.

They didn't have him his 1st 3 years in the league, when so many things were up and down and so many things went sideways, and there were questions about effort, there were questions about attitude, there were questions about his ability to fit into the framework of a team.

But they did have him last year.

And he was a different guy last year.

And so now, the Cowboys can use this, to use the franchise tag to find out if it's sustainable.

He gets his $27 million.

If he plays great again, he could earn over $40 million per year next year.

Um, but they want to see him do it again, and that's understandable given the history of the player.

I think this is the plan from the start.

Um, there was a little question there whether or not they were gonna do an extension with him.

I don't think it was ever very realistic based on the year he had, what that justified him asking for, and where the Cowboys were willing to go here.

So, to me, this is the compromise.

Again, he gets a lump sum, $27 million.

The Cowboys get to see it for another year, and who knows, maybe they are.

Signing him to a 3-year, $120 million extension next year.

Either way, if George Pickens stays healthy, And stays right, the way he was right last year, then he will get paid and he will get paid at a very high level after taking home the $27 million for this year.

OK, our second topic is Kaleus Campbell signing with the Baltimore Ravens.

I love this story.

There is a bit of a backstory here.

Um, he, of course, played for the Ravens for 3 years, absolutely loved playing there, loved playing in that defense, loved playing for John Harbaugh.

He was there under Wink Martindale, and then, and then Mike McDonald with John Harbaugh as the head coach.

And he liked it so much there that at the trade deadline in 2024, there was actually a deal in place for the Dolphins to send Kaleus Campbell to the Ravens.

That deal, the very last minute was nixed by um the head coach, Mike McDaniel, who really looked at his defense and said, I don't know if we can be functional without Kaleus Campbell.

Um, the Dolphins were in contention at that point, they pulled the plug on the deal, and unfortunately for Kaleus, he has to finish out the season in a place where he didn't really want to be at the time.

Um, but this is a great result for him in the long run.

He's gonna be 40 years old playing that position.

Got all the respect in the world for him, former Walter Payton Man of the Year, one of the great people in the NFL, and you hope that, you know, whenever it's time, he gets a nice exit from the NFL.

He gets a proper exit from the NFL.

I think if this is it, and this is 18 years, and I think we've been saying if this is it with Kaleus Campbell for about 5 years now, but if this is it for, for Kaleus Campbell, going out with the team that he really loved playing for, even though John Harbaugh is not there anymore with Jesse Mitter now as the head coach, uh, that wouldn't be a bad ending.

OK, finally, our third topic.

Uh, the Vikings general manager search is underway.

It is expected to take weeks.

They've retained a search firm, search firm that was involved with the with the Falcons coaching search, not the GM search.

Uh, but it is worth looking at some names.

Here.

A few of these names were involved in the Atlanta search.

We'll give you those.

A few of these names have connections to the Vikings organization.

And the first one that I would bring up would be Bill's Assistant General Manager, Terrence Gray.

Um, you know, he came over from Minnesota.

Brandon Beane poached him, um, at the beginning of the McDermott Bean era in Buffalo.

He's been a huge part of putting those teams together.

Um, he came up in the Vikings organization.

So, you know, to me, uh Terrence Gray makes all the sense of the world.

He's got background in the college scouting side, which I think is part of what they would need.

Um, and what you're gonna see is with the six names I'm gonna give you, they're all scouting side guys cause they've already got Rob Brzezinski in there, and we'll get to Rob Brzezinski in a second.

Um, but Terrence Gray would be a very interesting name.

James Lipfert, the assistant general manager in Houston, I'd say the Texans.

Uh, roster is his resume.

He does have New England roots.

Um, he came up under Bill Belichick and Nick Casario in New England, was seen as one of their secret weapons when they were putting together those great rosters in New England that won Super Bowls, comes over to Houston, and now Houston is really rolling.

He's been with the Texans now for, I believe it's 6 years or 8 years, um, very much, very much one of the rising young execs.

Um, in the NFL and a guy that was right on the doorstep of getting the Atlanta job.

He was the runner-up for the Atlanta job, um, that wound up going to Ian Cunningham.

Also in the mix for the Atlanta job, Mike Bradway, the assistant general manager in Kansas City, very good name.

Some people might view him as a year or two away.

He's the son of former Jets GM Terry Bradway.

He's somebody you get a call.

Andy Wedel, the assistant general manager in Pittsburgh.

He cut his teeth in Baltimore, then worked under, under Howie Roseman in Philly.

Really good pedigree, really good roots.

He's got background on the college side, so he's another one that's a scouting lifer, as is Colts assistant general manager Ed Dodd.

So I think eventually he's gonna get one of these, but he was a huge part of building the Seattle Legion of Boom dynasty.

He's been with Chris Ballard since the start in Indianapolis.

Somebody who's really well thought of, a scout scout, a guy who is great out on the road.

Then a little bit of a wild card, if you wanna go with a more experienced name, Jeff Ireland, uh, is the assistant general manager for New Orleans.

He does a lot of general manager type duties there.

He's the ex-general manager of the Dolphins.

And Jeff Ireland to me is another one of these guys, an incredible scout, a guy who has spent a lot of his career on the road, um, knows how to put the, put a team together, was a Bill Parcells guy, um, coming up, and has worked under strong head coaches, and I think this is a key, working for Bill Parcells in Dallas, uh, then working for Bill Parcells in Miami, then working for Sean Payton in New Orleans, uh, somebody Sean Payton wanted to bring to Denver with him.

Uh, Jeff Ireland, I think is a really good name.

So, that's 6 names, then you have the internal candidates, and it starts with Rob Brzezinski, who's the interim GM right now.

Um, he has shown some interest in the, in the general manager job.

You could also pair Rob Brzezinski and sort of The executive vice president role with more of a scouting type of GM.

That's why I gave you guys the six names on the scouting side.

Um, the idea of, of that makes a lot of sense.

And, you know, like, if you, if Brzezinski wanted to stay in his current role, maybe, you know, plus a little authority, maybe you have a two-headed monster there with, with, with Kevin O'Connell being kind of the third guy.

Um, it's part of that, that, that power structure.

Uh, maybe Brzezinski becomes the general manager.

Um, I also think that the vice president of player personnel, Ryan Grigson's done a really nice job.

He's got the respect of the people in the building.

Um, he's very close to the defensive coordinator, Brian Flores.

I just, I'm not sure how that would work, but Brzezinski, if he wants the job, does Brzezinski get the first crack at it over Grigson based on his tenure there.

It'd be interesting to watch, but Ryan Grigson is another interesting name.

So there are 8 names for you.

I do expect that they're gonna cast a wide net.

Look at all of these guys, look at some more names.

Uh, they don't have much urgency to do anything right now.

The draft is in the rearview mirror.

This is sort of a slower time in the calendar for scouts.

And they don't have anybody they're competing with um for candidates.

So the Vikings have an opportunity here to kind of lay out.

Look at their options, take a good hard look at all the guys, and then make, make the, the, the, the right pick for their franchise.

So, interested to see where that goes.

We'll be covering all of that obviously over the coming weeks.

Appreciate you guys coming out.

As always, you can leave your comments down below here on the YouTube page or you can get to me on my social media at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert R Breer on Facebook, at Albert_Breer on Instagram.

Appreciate you guys coming out as always.

Have a great weekend.

We will see you early next week.