It really shouldn’t be this hard for the Dallas Cowboys to sign Micah Parsons. Most teams tend to show a little more urgency when it comes to locking up a 26-year-old superstar pass rusher with four Pro Bowl appearances, two All-Pro selections, and a Defensive Rookie of the Year award... in four seasons.
But the Cowboys are built different—always have been, always will. Why make a routine contract extension routine when you can turn it into a full-blown media circus? It’s what America’s Team does best.
With Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt setting the bar at $40 million per year, it’s safe to assume Parsons will want something in that neighborhood, and then some.
Related: Micah Parsons lets Cowboys fans know who's to blame for contract drama
In one of the more confusing extension sagas in the league, Parsons and the Cowboys still haven’t found common ground on a well-earned second contract. Between Jerry Jones sidestepping Parsons’ agent and Parsons claiming he’ll get paid “no matter what,” the drama is fully baked. It’s more of the same from a team that hasn’t sniffed a conference championship game since 1995.
Dallas opens training camp Monday. Parsons is expected to be there, even without a new deal — but don’t be surprised if most of the headlines out of camp revolve around this ridiculous situation.
4 (technically 5) Cowboys to blame for Micah Parsons contract debacle
Brian Schottenheimer
He doesn’t deserve the bulk of the blame, but he deserves a slice. Schottenheimer might not want to rock the boat with Jerry, but reinforcing the obvious — Micah Parsons needs to be on the field and happy — should be part of the job. As a first-year head coach, he needs his best players on the field if he wants to stick around. It wouldn’t hurt to make sure this whole thing doesn’t drag out.
CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott
This one isn’t direct, but it matters. When two of the team’s biggest stars went through similar drama and both ended up with massive contracts, why would Parsons think his situation would be any different?
Prescott got four years, $240 million. Lamb landed four years, $136 million. So what kind of precedent does it set if the team pays some of its stars quickly and stalls with others? Like it or not, their deals set the bar—and Parsons is right to expect the same. That’s not their fault, exactly, but they’ve helped raise the standard Parsons is now demanding.
Jerry Jones and his ego
When will Jerry learn? After dragging out the Prescott and Lamb extensions — and paying more in the process — he’s just running the same tired playbook. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results...
Jones always claims there’s “no rush” to get deals done. But somehow, every time, the Cowboys end up overpaying in the final hour just to wrap it up and move on. Some think that’s all part of his strategy — to wear players down and get team-friendly deals — but that hasn’t worked with any of their top guys. Neither Dak nor Lamb has anything close to a discount deal.
This feels more like Jerry trying to save face after attempting to go around Parsons’ agent, David Mulugheta. And now he’s just stalling for pride. Enough already. He's only driving the price tag up by waiting. To think he could have stolen Parsons had he gotten this done last year.
Micah Parsons
Parsons just wants to get paid — and he should. It’s not selfish or greedy to expect a record-setting contract. He’s earned it.
That said, the public jabs at Jerry haven’t helped. We all know how fragile Jones’ ego is, and Parsons’ comments like “I’m going to get mine no matter what,” and “Ownership is always going to make it drag out,” probably aren’t speeding things up when an 82-year-old billionaire is on the other end.
At the end of the day, this could've been easy. Instead, the Cowboys let it snowball into another headline-grabbing mess. And if it costs them even a second of Parsons at full focus, they’ll only have themselves to blame. This is becoming an organizational failure.