Until proven otherwise, the Dallas Cowboys are going to suck all the air out of the room and collectively waste everyone's time. While they might be America's Team, more energy is spent on this franchise than it honestly deserves. This is because owner Jerry Jones built them back up into a winner in the early 1990s only to then go down a long and winding road of extreme and unchecked decadence.
This has culminated in another offseason in which we are surely going to want to gouge our eyes out with a rusty spoon. The only thing worse than a star Cowboys player heading into a contract year is Brandon Aiyuk thinking he is worth No. 1 wide receiver money. Every four years, we do this same dog and pony show with quarterback Dak Prescott. Now we must await what comes with Micah Parsons.
Parsons is entering his fifth NFL season out of Penn State. He was effectively a position-less player coming to Dallas in the 2021 NFL Draft before former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn seemingly gave him one: Just blow things up, dude. Parsons is a total game-wrecker, and one who should be worth every penny on the open market. He just may not get to it, because this is the Cowboys we're talking about.
Why Jerry Jones is going to mess up the Micah Parsons contract dispute
One of the advantages Jones seemingly had in negotiating with Prescott (twice) is that he is a former unheralded fourth-round pick out of Mississippi State. While Prescott was a good player in the SEC, nobody saw this coming from him in the NFL. In a way, he always had some sort of loyalty to the Cowboys because they believed in him first. He also played for four seasons for them on a relatively low salary.
But Parsons is different. He was a top-16 pick in his draft class. Prescott is a fine quarterback, but Parsons is a generational talent. Messing with his money is the quickest way towards him eventually walking in free agency. Yes, Dallas can use the franchise tag on him next offseason, but that would be insulting. He may be worth that bump in pay for the 2026, but that feels incredibly Cincinnati Bengals.
What I am getting at is Dallas had plenty of time to get out ahead of this so that there was next to no chance Parsons would every play a down for anyone else in his prime. Instead, the Cowboys do what they always do and make it about themselves (or Jerry Jones, same difference). Jones would rather have the media talking about his team's most talented player rather than winning games with him.
To bring it all back home, why am I so certain of this? Well, he's done it twice since COVID with Prescott. He did the same thing when wide receiver CeeDee Lamb's turn for a new contract came up. Why do you think Lamb played through so much obvious pain in his shoulder for the second half of the season? Jones was messing with him and his money. I would hate for him to do the same thing to Parsons.
Meanwhile, Dallas has gotten "selectively aggressive" this offseason, by which they mean taking mostly one-year fliers on retreads and depth pieces. Jones is almost certainly keeping his powder dry in order to eventually pay Parsons; just imagine what the Cowboys might be able to do if he'd gotten out in front of this a year ago.