At a time when the Cowboys routinely dig in their spurs when it comes to re-signing their core players, the Raiders have shown them how it’s done.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the new contract for star pass rusher Maxx Crosby came together very quickly, literally in a few hours.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, spend far more time making excuses regarding their failure to find a way to turn words into action.
“We get criticized because we wait until the end or what you would call the end, and that is lining up for the first game,” owner Jerry Jones said Wednesday. “It just happens that way. I’ve been one of the earliest out there on several contracts in my 35 years.”
It’s easy to make bold, broad claims when stubborn things like facts aren’t included in the discussion. The reality is that, in recent years, the Cowboys have waited way too long with too many players they were going to sign anyway. From Ezekiel Elliott in 2019 to Dak Prescott in 2021 to CeeDee Lamb in 2024 to Dak Prescott (again) in 2024, the Cowboys routinely choose intransigence.
The same thing could be coming for linebacker Micah Parsons. The smart move would be to do now that which they’ll inevitably do later. It’ll create more cap space, and it’ll only become more expensive as other deals come in.
Already, Crosby has set a new bar for non-quarterbacks, at $35.5 million per year in new money. Other players, especially edge rushers, could push it even higher. Whenever the Cowboys get around to hammering out the details for Micah’s next deal, the price could be a lot higher than it would be today.
If they wanted to do it today, they could. He’s due to make $24 million this year, fully guaranteed. A five-year, $168 million contract would create a new-money average of $36 million, at an actual payout of $33.6 million annually.
Give Micah $40 million to sign. Add a $1.17 million base salary for 2025. For 2026, give him a fully-guaranteed $35 million salary with the right to convert it to a signing bonus. The 2027 salary would be $33 million, guaranteed for injury and fully guaranteed in March 2026. That’s a $109.17 million practical guarantee.
Throw in a pair of $29.415 million non-guaranteed base salaries on the back end, and that’s it.
Three hours? It could take three minutes. The Cowboys nevertheless seem content to let it take six months.
The Cowboys completed a contract with defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa on Tuesday, signing him to a four-year deal worth up to $80 million with $52 million guaranteed. His cap number is $6.25 million for 2025.
Next up is All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons.
Parsons is under contract for the fifth-year option of $22.06 million but unlikely to show up until he gets a contract extension.
The Cowboys did not get extensions completed with receiver CeeDee Lamb and quarterback Dak Prescott until just before the start of the 2024 season. Lamb missed all of the offseason program, all of training camp and all of the preseason before signing.
“We get criticized because we wait until the end or what you would call the end, and that is lining up for the first game,” owner Jerry Jones said Wednesday, via Todd Archer of ESPN. “It just happens that way. I’ve been one of the earliest out there on several contracts in my 35 years.”
Executive vice president Stephen Jones said preliminary contract talks have started with Parsons.
Parsons is expected to top the three-year, $106.5 million contract extension signed by Las Vegas edge rusher Maxx Crosby on Wednesday. The deal made Crosby the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history, something Parsons said late last season he doesn’t need, but he is likely to get.
While Jerry Jones said there is no urgency to complete a deal for Parsons, Stephen Jones hopes for sooner than later.
“That’s always [the goal],” Stephen Jones said, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com. “The goal was to do CeeDee [done] early. That’s always the goal, to get it done when you can get it.”
Former NFL defensive back Pacman Jones was one of our favorite PFT Live guests during Super Bowl week. So was Colorado coach Deion Sanders.
They recently got together for an episode of Deion’s Tubi show, We Got Time Today. And Jones made an eyebrow-raising claim regarding his efforts to beat the NFL’s drug-testing protocols.
“I cheated the program,” Jones said, via Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today. “Like, I was really good. People don’t know how smart I am, but like, I can say it now. I don’t play no more. But like, I’ve never used my [urine] for a [urine] test. Not one time. Not one time.” (Folks, it’s OK to use the word “piss,” if that’s the word he used. You won’t go to hell for it.)
Deion told Jones that “can’t happen today.” Jones, who spent 12 years in the NFL with the Titans, Cowboys, Bengals, and Broncos, disagreed.
“It can happen if you know what you’re doing,” Jones said. “Don’t say it can’t happen, Pop. Hey, Pop, don’t say it can’t happen.”
“The reason it can’t [is] because they go in there with you right now,” Sanders said, regarding the sample collectors. “No, no. They go in there and watch you pull out.”
“You still can get them,” Jones said.
Deion ended the conversation before Pacman could explain the workaround. In 2005, former NFL running back Onterrio Smith was caught at an airport with a “Whizzinator” — a fake penis that dispensed clean urine.
Nowadays, few care about marijuana use. As Jones said, it helps players manage pain.
“They’re giving guys opiates, pain pills, muscle relaxers,” Jones said. “You’re telling me that a guy that’s smoking THC, that it’s helping him perform more, or are you telling me is it helping his body? . . . I’m all for the weed.”
It’s currently legal for medical or recreational usage in 37 states. And while the NFL has largely decriminalized it under the substance-abuse policy, it would make more sense to tell the players, “Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.”
Especially since it helps them get through the grind of a 17-week football season.
The Cowboys have cap space to sign Micah Parsons to a long-term extension and to participate in the first phase of free agency. Will they?
The Cowboys have freed up $56.6 million in cap space over the past two days.
After reworking receiver CeeDee Lamb’s contract Tuesday to open $20 million in cap space, the Cowboys did the same with quarterback Dak Prescott.
Patrik Walker of the team website reports that the Cowboys restructured Prescott’s deal, which will free up $36.6 million.
Prescott has autoconversion in his contract, authorizing the Cowboys to restructure the deal when it wants. Lamb also has that in his contract as do most big-money veteran deals.
Prescott was scheduled for a cap number of $89.896 million in 2025, so it was a given the team would use its right to rework the deal.
The drop in this year’s cap number will lead to a $9.15 million increase in his 2026 cap number to $76.8 million, so another adjustment likely will happen a year from now.
Though the Cowboys have the cap space at $54.3 million, per overthecap, they apparently do not have the appetite to spend the money in free agency. Owner Jerry Jones contradicted his son, executive vice president Stephen Jones, saying “aggressive” is not the right word to use regarding the team’s free agency plans.
Stephen Jones said last week the team would be “selectively aggressive” in free agency after they signed only running back Royce Freeman and linebacker Eric Kendricks in the first phase of free agency last year.
Last week, Cowboys executive Stephen Jones said the team will be “selectively aggressive” in free agency. On Wednesday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones selected a different way to describe the plans.
“I don’t think aggressive is the right word,” Jerry Jones told reporters after the Zack Martin retirement press conference. “I’m not looking at free agency as a place to fill voids.”
Jones said he believes the team can fill its voids during the draft.
That approach puts even more pressure on the picking of players who can play right away. And play well.
Jerry also said he has the “bait” out on trade possibilities, but that he’ll wait for other teams to come to them. Which is sort of like saying the worm is on the hook, but he won’t put the line in the water until the fish say they’re hungry.
For Cowboys fans who are hungry for something more than the worm food of the last 30 years, today’s comments won’t be viewed as good news.
