Should Dallas Begin to Worry About Micah Parsons Contract Situation?
With only a month left before Dallas's yearly OTAs in Oxnard, California, the Micah Parsons saga is continuing to go on. Parsons and his agent, David Mulugheta, are keen on letting this contract situation play out, while Jerry Jones is firm on his position to wait as well. Head Coach Brian Schottenheimer has gotten Parsons to attend mandatory minicamp thus far, and his leadership has been key for the new defensive line group, but the output is not the same as if he were a fully signed player. Regardless of how long the contract will take to be solved, Parsons will surely become the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history, but is the prolonging of the contract hurting the Cowboys?
In short, yes. Dallas waiting to sign Parsons to this contract hurts Dallas in a couple of different ways. First, his participation in team drills and offseason work with the team has been different thus far, similar to how Dallas handled CeeDee Lamb last year. To Parsons' credit, he has shown up to teamwork while other players around the league and in the past have not, but his missing out on certain activities does affect how Schottenheimer and Co. go about their practices. Second, Parsons is not the only star pass rusher waiting to sign a brand-new contract. Steelers star T.J. Watt is another player who is waiting for his deal to get done, and if he gets his contract before Parsons, Parsons' price will get even a bit higher than what is already expected.
Why Does Dallas Do This?
The Joneses have always decided to take this route of waiting to sign players for a long time due to their own beliefs. Jerry has said in the past that he has made mistakes signing players early who have not panned out as Dallas wanted, and giving up guaranteed money to a poor-performing player is the opposite of what the Joneses like to do. The other reason is that Jerry loves to have the power and upper hand in any negotiation, and he believes that if you make the first move, you have already lost the negotiation. These tactics by the Joneses have been critiqued for a long time by Dallas media and league-wide, but they are firm in sticking with what they believe in. Dallas and Parsons both know they’ll get the contract done and be partnered for a long time, but the only question that remains is when they’ll put pen to paper.
