Trey Hendrickson and Micah Parsons have more in common than they probably thought they did. They both are currently contracted to negligent organizations that are treating both of their contract extensions as insignificant. They both are also holding out as they await what their respective teams’ front offices will do about their pending deals.
At this point, it’s a coin flip on which player is going to sign their new deal first. The Cincinnati Bengals have seemingly given up on bringing Hendrickson back, which always felt like the case thanks to massive offensive deals for Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins this past offseason. And with how things went with Shemar Stewart, it’s probably likely the Bengals will play the long game with Hendrickson.
As for Parsons and the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones does things his way. But it would break his typical rhythm to not re-sign Parsons at all, or even trade him. Let’s break down their situations and see who’s most likely to ink a deal first.
Jerry Jones likes to play games, but he takes care of his own
Micah Parsons will likely get his new deal first, and history would back that up. Jerry Jones takes care of his players, especially the ones with really high value. Let’s turn the clock back a few decades. Remember the Emmitt Smith extension? Jones played the long game, letting Smith’s holdout carry over into the regular season. Two games into the season, the pressure was so mounting to get Smith in house, Jones had no choice but to cave.
If we go to just last year, Jones waited until hours before the Dallas Cowboys kicked off the 2024 season in Cleveland to finalize Dak Prescott’s lucrative four-year, $240 million extension. The moral of the story, those contracts got done, even if it wasn’t in the best interest of the player.
Parsons will probably get his extension within the next few weeks. I’m sure Jones doesn’t want Parsons’ leverage to increase once the season starts and the Cowboys’ miserable defensive line gets exposed. The interesting thing at play is, while players like Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt and Maxx Crosby have upended the EDGE rusher market, whoever gets extended first between Parsons and Hendrickson, it forces the other team to either match, beat it or let them walk.
The Cincinnati Bengals have every incentive to sign Hendrickson first to avoid overpaying to keep him
I think the Bengals are leaning toward letting Hendrickson go because it just doesn’t make sense to keep doing this back and forth if it’s going somewhere. The interesting thing with this is Hendrickson’s value is kind of in no-man’s land. If we look at the 11 EDGE rushers that are currently making more than Hendrickson’s $21 million per year, only Watt and Andrew Van Ginkel are his age; Van Ginkel is making $23 million and Watt is the highest paid at $41 million per year.
That’s a massive disparity. While Parsons is waiting for his first extension, the number he makes will adjust a reasonable AAV for Hendrickson. After all, he had 35 sacks in the last two seasons and led the NFL with 17.5 last year. He’s worth top dollar, but upwards of $30 million is a tough ask.
Assuming Parsons surpasses $35 million, you could argue Hendrickson is worth similar to what Brian Burns or Joshua Hines-Allen is making, which is upwards of $28 million, but again, he’s older than both of those players. Hendrickson already said that he wants more guaranteed money. But that doesn’t help with his value. He could be worth more than $25 million a year, but with guarantees that forces the Bengals to cough up more money.
The way I look at it, the Bengals aren’t any closer to getting a deal done and waiting for Parsons to get his extension only drives Hendrickson’s value up. Regardless of what his value is right now, the waiting game is costly.
Should the Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys consider trading their star EDGE rushers?
The only trade that makes sense is for the Cincinnati Bengals to trade Hendrickson to get some draft capital. They need players on defense, but this team isn’t structured to spend big. They have a front office that just learned what it meant to invest in the roster. They prefer to reload through the NFL Draft each year. Their defense is miserable, but whatever they get from a Hendrickson deal isn’t going to solve that.
Getting the draft capital can ensure they can start turning to draft prospects in 2026 to give Joe Burrow some relief on the defensive side of the ball. As for Micah Parsons and the Dallas Cowboys, this is all a smoke screen.
Parsons is going nowhere. Jones isn’t going to let Parsons leave Arlington, Frisco or anywhere else in the Dallas metro that has a Cowboys footprint. The trade threat was just that: a threat. It was a ploy to remind Jones just how important Parsons is. There’s no real depth to it. Think about Hendrickson, he was granted the right to explore trades yet he’s more keen on getting things solved in Cincinnati vs. elsewhere.
If Parsons ends up on a new team this season, it would be earth-shattering news. If Hendrickson ended up on a new team, we would be wondering why it took so long. The nature of it is the one who gets their deal done first, controls the path of the other. It’s looking like Parsons will have the upper hand and Hendrickson will be left at a crossroads again.