The Dallas Cowboys and Micah Parsons continue to dance around a long-term contract extension that will presumably make him the highest-paid defender in NFL history. We know how this goes: Jerry Jones talks for months about how hard it is to spend money, he waits until the very last possible second, and then he drops the bag to keep his franchise players in tow.
This happened last summer with Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb. Now Parsons is living through it. That doesn't make it any less frustrating for fans, who'd prefer to get this over and done with. In fact, the Cowboys waiting so long has probably made life more difficult on Jones, who now has to account for the precedent set by Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt. His three-year, $123 million contract extension with the Steelers makes him the highest-paid non-QB of all time... for now.
Parsons, for his part, has made it clear who is at fault for this nonsensical offseason spectacle. It's so much easier to just pay the man, but of course, we have Jerry Jones to blame for making free agency feel like pulling teeth.
Case and point: Parsons will report to Cowboys training camp, despite not receiving a new contract, per Bleacher Report's Jordan Schultz.
#Cowboys 3x All-Pro Micah Parsons will report to Oxnard, California for training camp despite not having a long-term contract extension with the organization, sources tell me. pic.twitter.com/Rojv9tRT57
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) July 20, 2025
Micah Parsons makes strong statement with Cowboys training camp decision
This comes days after Parsons effectively called out Jones on the Six-Feet Under podcast (h/t Dallas Morning News).
"We obviously want to get it done early,” he said. “We want that relief off our backs, but, obviously, ownership’s always going to make it drag out, make it more complicated than it has to be, lack of communication.”
By showing up to camp and forgoing the standard holdout procedures for stars waiting on their paycheck, Parsons is making it abundantly clear that he has nothing to do with prolonging these negotiations. He wants a new deal. He wants his worth. That's it. He isn't trying to undermine the team or leverage locker room drama to get a deal done quicker. He's going to do his job. It's on Jerry Jones and the Cowboys brass to pay him accordingly.
Cowboys will only regret letting his drag out even further
Even with Parsons committing to the 'good sport' attitude, this is a distraction. It will come up at camp media availability. Every practice rep Parsons takes is a risk. If he gets hurt, it hands leverage to the Dallas front office and compromises his financial future. He is going out on a limb by reporting to camp and presumably participating where he can. The Cowboys ought to reciprocate Parsons' faith and loyalty with some of their own.
The Jones front office circus in Dallas is basically a yearly story around training camp. It's embarrassing, to be frank. Plenty of other teams drag contract drama into camp, but few do it for such foundational stars. There aren't any quarterbacks waiting until the final buzzer for their extension like Prescott in 2024. Now Parsons is the last elite pass-rusher waiting on his bag with Watt's situation settled in Pittsburgh.
Steelers fans were aggravated for months over the Watt saga, and that resolution always felt inevitable. Just imagine how irritated Dallas fans are, hoping against hope that Jerry Jones doesn't somehow mess things up with the most public-facing, all-in Cowboys star in a generation.