The Cowboys are no strangers to lengthy negotiating periods with high-profile players, and this offseason has proven to be no exception. Micah Parsons is still a pending 2026 free agent with this year’s offseason program in the books. 
He and owner Jerry Jones spoke months ago and made considerable progress toward a final agreement. Nothing is in place now, though, and the two parties have not spoken for some time. Finances are always a key factor in extension talks, but the length of a deal is crucial as well. On the latter point, the Cowboys have often favored longer agreements and it appears that could be an issue with respect to Parsons.
Term length seems to be a sticking point between the Cowboys and the two-time All-Pro, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network notes (video link). Longer deals with the likes of Tyron Smith, Zack Martin and DeMarcus Lawrence have demonstrated the team’s preference when it comes to big-ticket extensions. More recently, pacts for Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb (both four years in length) illustrate how that approach may be shifting in the wake of player preferring more frequent opportunities to test the market.
At the age of 26 and with 52.5 sacks to his name, Parsons is an obvious candidate for a major raise over the course of several years. The four-time Pro Bowler intends to reset the EDGE market on his new deal, something which would require surpassing Myles Garrett‘s $40MM per year as things stand. Extensions for the likes of T.J. Watt, Aidan Hutchinson and Trey Hendrickson could move the bar even higher this summer, something which would add to the cost of waiting on the Cowboys’ part.
It is unclear what terms Dallas is prepared to offer in this case, along with the particulars Parsons is seeking. With a training camp hold-in looming, though, progress regarding not only financials but also contract structure will need to be made over the next few weeks.
The Cowboys like longer term contracts because they make it easier to restructure deals to make short term cap space for the next contract they dragged their feet on negotiating.
I’m curious what the numbers is. Some of the pending might make serious coin on their upcoming deals, making Parsons that more expensive. And I see no chance of this favoring the Cowboys.
More Jerry can keep those Millions in the Bank to collect interest the better…
He’s a businessman first and if u don’t believe there is a method to his madness ur crazy…
Every Huge Contract he drags to the last possible moment…gaining tons of millions of dollars of interest which is waaay more money then he would be costing himself because of waiting to get these contracts done at a timely matter…
Not so sure about your math there iceman. And that’s before you get to the salary cap factor.
I beileve his idea is along the lines of….
PlayerA is due a 3yr $100m dollar extension but still has a year left on his contract. I sign him now and give him a $50m bonus with the rest payed oun in years 2,3,4 from how.
Even invested poorly, that $50m will be a couple million in a year and when all is said and done a couple million more at least.
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The player takes it because it’s money in hand and by taking their money now, their agent explains the added value because the player now earns those millions.
Being the “Briliant Mind” he is…..Jones waits to the last minute….so his money earns those millions…The issue is now the contract costs hims $110m over 3 years….perhaps more than what he earned in savings and the Cap Hit for those 3 years will be $110m instead of $100m.
The one valid Retort Jones would have to my comment is to ask me to ScoreBoard my Checking account vs his 🙂
I’m sure you have less money in your checking account than the Wilpons, but you can still point out that the Bobby Bonilla payout was stupid.
“Instead of paying Bonilla the remaining $5.9 million on his contract, the Mets agreed to pay him $1,193,248.20 annually from 2011 to 2035” – Best I can tell is Bonilla got his hands on incriminating photos. It’s the only rational explanation to pay someone $29,831,205 to save $5,900,00!
Time to start stalking my Boss’s Boss’s Boss to see if I can get a similar deal.
We know exactly what they did it and it wasn’t incriminating photos. The Wilsons were getting such great returns on their investments that they thought keeping that money in the market would more than pay for the ridiculous interest rate they were paying Bonilla… but those incredible returns on investment were actually Bernie Madoff fraud.
Agreeing to a contract at a later date and a higher price has no bearing on when the money is paid. That is not how money and finance works. By Jerry agreeing to pay parsons 50m today instead of 40m last year means Jerry lost 10 million dollars of cap space. He made $0 in interest by “agreeing” to the deal later than he should have.
So, Trey isn’t the only malcontent? Maybe the Bengals, Steelers and Cowboys can make a three way trade.
why fix what’s worked so well the last three decades ?
Could be held up due to contract length? I recommend readers go to the Fish report if you want Cowboys news. This contract hold up has been discussed 3 months ago.