Months after the Dallas Cowboys signed wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and quarterback Dak Prescott to contract extensions earlier this year, speculation arose that the club could make star pass-rusher Micah Parsons available to other teams during the upcoming offseason.
Parsons, Cowboys chief operating officer Stephen Jones
and
team owner/general manager Jerry Jones have since poured cold water over such talk. For a piece published Thursday, Todd Archer of ESPN indicated fans shouldn’t expect Parsons to put pen to paper on an extension anytime soon, with the 25-year-old currently set to play next season on the fifth-year option attached to his rookie contract.
“He is set to count $21.4M on his fifth-year option, but a multiyear extension would lower that figure,” Archer said about Parsons. “But last offseason, the Cowboys did not sign Lamb until August and Prescott until September, so it’s difficult to imagine the Cowboys will get a Parsons deal done by the time free agency opens in the middle of March.”
That’s noteworthy for multiple reasons. Jerry Jones received plenty of criticism following what was deemed to be a rather underwhelming offseason for the Cowboys, and he admitted in September that it was “very fair” to blame him for the state of what became a 6-8 team. Per Bobby Belt of Audacy, Parsons said during a recent episode of his podcast that he believes Dallas will “attack free agency” when the next league year begins in March.
Failing to lock Parsons down via an extension that would lower his salary-cap number for 2025 could limit just how much the Cowboys “attack free agency” ahead of the draft.
Additionally, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio mentioned this past June that Parsons shouldn’t “show up for training camp until he gets what he deserves” via an extension that would’ve included financial guarantees beyond the expiration of his rookie deal.
History shows Parsons may go down that road next summer, which could make things awkward behind the scenes and result in the 2021 first-round draft pick not being fully ready to play come Week 1.
It’s also possible that Parsons may stay away from the team through at least springtime workouts if Jerry Jones moves on from head coach Mike McCarthy. McCarthy remains in the final season of his contract but has received public support from team leaders such as Parsons.
In short, plenty of uncertainty will inevitably hover over the Cowboys through at least Week 18 of the ongoing campaign.
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