OXNARD, CA — Jerry Jones is clearly in no hurry.
Why has it taken so long to strike a deal with Micah Parsons?
“It took a long time with Emmitt Smith,” the Dallas Cowboys owner replied, turning back the clock to the Hall of Fame running back’s epic holdout in 1993. “Same thing with (Zack) Martin two years ago. (Cee Dee) Lamb last year. When you have the ability for players under contract to basically renegotiate or say, ‘I’m not going to play the contract,’ then you have those things happen.”
And here’s what else can happen: Parsons, the All-Pro defensive end, rocked the NFL universe on Friday when he took to social media to publicly demand a trade, intimating that negotiations for a new contract have stalled to the point of no return.
Two days before Parsons’ bombshell, though, Jones seemed to have already drawn a line in the sand during an interview with USA TODAY Sports that might have indicated where these negotiations with the defensive centerpiece could be headed.
He mentioned that Dak Prescott, who last year become the NFL’s first $60 million-per-year man, played out his rookie contract and was twice franchise-tagged before landing his four-year, $240 million megadeal. And he referenced the two franchise tags the team used on since-departed defensive end Demarcus Lawrence before he signed a five-year, $105 million deal in 2019.
“Both of those players, they played their contract out,” Jones said. “To me, you’re going through a process where a player wants to see if they can get an extended contract. And if they don’t they play their contract out.”
It should also be noted that Lamb, the star receiver, didn’t play out his contract or get franchise-tagged before landing a four-year, $136 million extension that averaged $34 million.
But Lamb also forced the issue by holding out of training camp last year.
Parsons seemingly gave up leverage by reporting to camp and proceeding as a so-called “hold-in” while not practicing. The Cowboys exercised the fifth-year option on Parsons’ rookie contract, which guarantees a $24.007 million salary for 2025 and a huge bump from the $4.269 million for the first four years of his deal.
With the Cowboys yet to negotiate with Parson’s agent, David Mulugheta, the frustration is boiling over. Parsons is reportedly seeking a deal that could reset the market again for defensive stars after T.J. Watt’s package with the Pittsburgh Steelers averages $41 million per year, which tops the $40 million average that Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett received earlier in the offseason.
Yet with the franchise tag in play, the option for Parsons to merely “play out” his contract as Jones suggested, could allow the Cowboys to prevent him from becoming an unrestricted free agent until, gulp, 2028.
And the NFL’s highest-rated soap opera, let’s call it ‘As The Cowboys World Turns,’ is back for another season.
“This business is business-first, right?” Prescott said during an interview with USA TODAY Sports. “We always say this game is a business, but it’s business first.”
While Prescott and other players vehemently support Parsons in his efforts to land a new deal, it can’t be good for the business of winning to have the distraction weighing on training camp. No, the Cowboys are not the only NFL team with a lingering contract issue for a key player. But some teams manage such business with much less drama, while the Cowboys always seem to have some drama in the wind.
In other words, Jones seems willing to call Parsons’ bluff — and quite content to keep the drama flowing.
“This is really nothing new, at all, with Micah,” Jones said at one point during the 1-hour, 10-minute interview over lunch in his training camp office.
I asked him about the negative reaction from his massive fan base, which goes far beyond the fans at camp who chanted “Pay Micah!” The extended negotiations over the past two years involving Prescott, Lamb and Martin added to the perception that the Cowboys lack urgency when it comes to signing key players to extensions.
Does the perception that the Cowboys drag their feet concern Jones?
“Let me say this just right,” Jones replied. ‘I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t do it that way. I should be trying to get the most value for the Cowboys. I’ve seen players I wish we had renegotiated their contracts earlier and I’ve had several that I was sorry I renegotiated their contract earlier. The idea that if you wait there’s more money (spent) forgets that in between that wait, you get to evaluate and you frankly get to see if you’re dealing with the same physical elements of it.”
As he pondered this, Jones grabbed a legal pad and began doodling – with circles, arrows and straight lines – to make a point.
“It’s almost akin to an option quarterback,” he said. “He can step out, he can either hand it to that guy going down the line, or he can come on out and keep it, or he can pitch it. Three different things. The longer you give him to get to the sideline, the better chance you’ve got to make the better play.
“So, I’ve never, in any way, forgotten all the things that can happen to you if you go too quick. And that list of going too quick is just as long as the negative of getting it done early every time.”
That we’re talking about Parsons, who is just the second player in NFL history (the first was the legendary Reggie White) to notch at least 12 sacks in his first four seasons, doesn’t move Jones off his point.
There’s also a sense with Jones that no one has the NFL money matters figured out quite like he does. He thinks, as the NFL’s most powerful owner and essential player in driving the league’s media rights deals and labor pacts, that he’s more “in the weeds,” as he put it, with the league’s revenues, able to “look around the corner” at increasing revenues. And with Jones’ marketing, the Cowboys have long been the NFL’s most valuable franchise, last year becoming the first $10 billion sports franchise in the annual Forbes rankings.
“Nobody could possibly have the feel for whether to go early on him or wait,” Jones said, alluding to revenue and salary cap projections.
Of course, skeptics and championship-starved Cowboys fans alike, counter the financials with the football bottom line. The Cowboys, for all of their sustained popularity, have a 29-year drought since last appearing in a Super Bowl.
Jones, who also serves as the team’s GM, addressed the question before it was even asked. He’s not giving up that part of the equation, reiterating his typical stance.
“I’m not in any way revisiting the mentality that I have about how I go about negotiations,” he said. “Not at all. The buck does stop here.”
As usual, the buck is wrapped in so much intrigue.
Jones mentioned the Smith holdout from a generation ago. Smith missed the first two games in 1993, and the defending Super Bowl champions started 0-2 without their MVP.
After Charles Haley planted a helmet into a locker room wall near Jones following the Week 2 loss to the Buffalo Bills, Smith’s contract talks suddenly heated up. And it ended well. Smith got his new contract and it sparked the Cowboys to a repeat Super Bowl crown.
Ah, the drama. Yet that was then. And this is now.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on social media: On X: @JarrettBell. On Bluesky: jarrettbell.bsky.social