Cowboys owner Jerry Jones reaffirmed a hard stance in the team’s extension negotiations with Micah Parsons on Thursday, insisting that the two sides had already agreed to a deal and blaming the lack of progress on Parsons’ agent, David Mulugheta.
“When we wanted to send the details to the agent, the agent told us to stick it up our [expletive],” said Jones in an interview with Michael Irvin. Mulugheta has since denied that claim, per Clarence Hill Jr. of All City DLLS.
“We had our agreement on term, amount, guarantees, everything,” continued Jones, referencing a conversation he had with Parsons earlier this offseason. “We’ve got this deal resolved, in my mind, for the Dallas Cowboys.” Jones also said that his agreement with Parsons “would have made him the highest guaranteed player other than a quarterback in the NFL.”
“The world would know that I want Micah if they knew what I offered him,” added Jones. That offer, according to Hill, was worth more than $40MM per year with almost $200MM in guaranteed money.
However, Parsons has since demanded that the Cowboys reach out to Mulugheta to finalize the contract. Jones, believing he already had a deal, hasn’t been willing to do that, according to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini. Parsons said upon requesting a trade he viewed his conversation with Jones as informal and that Mulugheta needed to be brought into the loop to conduct true negotiations.
A $200MM guarantee of any sort would also suggest the Cowboys offered an extension beyond four years or potentially beyond five; we heard earlier this offseason term length could pose an issue in this negotiation. No EDGE is tied to a guarantee beyond $124MM, and the top DEs and rush OLBs are on three- or four-year deals. While the Cowboys traditionally prefer longer-term structures, players — for the most part — are not signing committing to teams beyond four years anymore.
Jones has a well-documented history of trying to negotiate directly with players rather than through their agents and referenced such agreements with Irvin in their interview. He also revealed that he once shut down negotiations with a prospective coach because he wanted to involve an “advisor.”
“There’s nothing wrong with me…talking directly to a player,” Jones said. But there might be.
In 2023, the NFL sent a memo to every team regarding a non-NFLPA certified agent trying to negotiate on the behalf of Lamar Jackson, per Around The NFL’s Nick Shook. That memo included a reminder that, under Article 48 of the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, “an Offer Sheet, which may result in an NFL Player Contract, may only be negotiated with the player, if he is acting on his own behalf, or with the player’s NFLPA certified agent.” The memo also warned that “Violation of this rule may result in disapproval of any Offer Sheet or resulting Player Contract entered into by Mr. Jackson and the new Club.”
Jones has publicly admitted that he was trying to negotiate a contract with detailed terms with Parsons directly and has since refused to involve Parsons’ NFLPA-certified agent. That would seem to run afoul of Article 48 as outlined by the league’s 2023 memo and potentially nullify a contract resulting from direct negotiations.
At the end of the interview, Jones leaned on Irvin to reach out Parsons personally to set up a meeting with Jones and “bridge this gap.”
“His agent should be involved in terms of papering it and all that kind of stuff,” said Jones, but he maintained his position that agents shouldn’t be involved in negotiations beyond formalities and paperwork.
Jones also referenced the potential to place the franchise tag on Parsons in 2026 and 2027 on multiple occasions.
“We can have him three years without having this agreement,” said Jones, comparing the situation to the Cowboys’ use of the franchise tag on Dak Prescott in 2020 and 2021.
“It’s exactly what happened with Dak,” explained Jones. “The precedent is handling it like Dak.” However, as noted by Hill, Prescott did not entertain direct talks with the Cowboys and forced them to negotiate with his agent. That eventually resulted in a four-year, $160MM agreement reached shortly after the tag was applied in 2021. By waiting as long as they did to extend Prescott, the Cowboys gave him what became overwhelming leverage. That chain of events led to the extraordinarily player-friendly extension agreed to in September 2024.
Parsons is set to make $24MM on his fifth-year option this season. He was designated as a defensive end for his fifth-year option, which would likely continue for the franchise tag, resulting in a projected cost of $26.54MM in 2026 and $31.84MM in 2027, per OverTheCap. Obviously, $58.38MM over two years is significantly less than what Parsons stands to earn from an extension with the Cowboys.
Jones also seemed to issue a warning to his star player against holding out into the regular season: “In this particular case, then Micah comes in and plays this year under his contract. If he doesn’t, it’s very costly. Very costly for everybody.”
For now, the lack of communication between Parson and the Cowboys is a fundamental obstacle to any progress in negotiations, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Parsons issues his trade request nearly three weeks ago. A lack of communication by this point — for a franchise that prolonged Prescott and CeeDee Lamb negotiations last year — does not reflect well on the Cowboys’ negotiating strategies.
“You can’t get a deal done if you’re not even talking,” said Schefter on his podcast. “The two sides haven’t had any negotiations since late March or early April. And it sounds like at this point it’s personal. It sounds like each side is dug in.”
“Both sides seem to be angry,” added Schefter, who noted that other teams have resolved similar situations but said that may not be the result in this case.
“I see these two sides headed towards a divorce in time,” continued Schefter. “It certainly doesn’t feel like these two sides want to enter a long-term relationship together.” Jones, meanwhile, clearly believes that he has a longer runway to keep Parsons in Dallas.
“We’ve really got three years to work this thing out,” Jones told Irvin.
Indeed, according to The Exhibit’s Josina Anderson, the relationship between the two sides “has not deteriorated to the point of an imminent divorce from the team’s perspective” and “the club remains unrattled at this time.” But Jones’ comments Thursday have not helped matters. Parsons took the step of removing Cowboys material from his X page. That is fairly standard practice during contentious negotiations, but it does not appear the sides are anywhere close to a resolution at this point. That would put Parsons to a decision, as a holdout would be the next step here.
Mafah, a seventh-round pick, suffered a shoulder injury in the Cowboys’ final preseason game against the Falcons on Friday. He will be sidelined for at least the first four weeks of the regular season.
