Jerry Jones is at it again.
The Cowboys owner and G.M. has a history of trying to negotiate directly with players. Last year, his habit helped contribute to the collapse of his relationship with linebacker Micah Parsons.
This year, Jerry is trying to get franchise-tagged receiver George Pickens to go it alone.
Coincidentally, or not, Pickens and Parsons are represented by the same agent — David Mulugheta of Athletes First.
Said Jones on Tuesday, via Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, regarding Pickens: “If he worked without an agent, he’d save a lot of money . . . with me.”
Pickens surely won’t be falling for that one. Jerry knows that it’s easier to squeeze someone who doesn’t negotiate contracts for a living into doing a bad deal. And even if Pickens wouldn’t have to pay Mulugheta’s fee, Mulugheta will get enough to more than justify his cut.
Look at what Parsons ultimately secured from the Packers: $46.5 million per year. Does anyone think the Cowboys ever would have paid him that much? Jones seemed to be intent on kicking the can through the fifth year of Parsons’s contract (at less than $25 million) before perhaps playing the franchise-tag game for a year or maybe two.
Instead, Parsons got $120 million fully guaranteed over the first three years of his contract with the Packers.
To date, the NFL Players Association has not taken action against Jones’s efforts to undermine the relationships between his players and their agents. Jones does it in part because the fine, under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, is minimal. And Jones has made it clear that he’ll happily pay those fines.
Of course he will. If/when he manages to get a player to do a deal without the help of an agent, Jerry would save enough money to pay that fine hundreds of times over.
Maybe that’s something the NFLPA should look to change in the next CBA. With Jones apparently the only owner inclined to circumvent NFLPA-certified agents, there would be little pushback from the league at large to adding a zero or two to the fine for doing so.
When Sean Mannion’s playing career ended, he joined the Packers as an offensive assistant in 2024.
Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur knew Mannion from their shared time on the Rams in 2017 when LaFleur was the offensive coordinator and Mannion was Los Angeles’ backup to Jared Goff.
After a quick promotion to QBs coach in 2025 following the retirement of Tom Clements, Mannion is now set to serve as Eagles offensive coordinator in 2026.
LaFleur said at the annual league meeting on Monday that he’s expecting Mannion to do quite well.
“Oh, Sean’s going to crush it. He’s going to do a great job,” LaFleur said. “He is one of the hardest workers I’ve been around. Certainly I saw it when he was a player, because I coached him for a year with the Rams, and then I saw just the work that he put in on a daily basis. He’s not afraid of work, now. It’s going to be a grind.
“His biggest thing that he’s going to have to learn is how to deal with all you guys [in the media] in Philly,” LaFleur added with a laugh.
Manion was a Rams third-round pick in 2015, spending his first four seasons with the club. He then ping ponged between the Vikings and Seahawks for several years before retiring to become a coach in 2023.
The Rams aren’t the only team interested in Kirk Cousins as a backup quarterback. The Packers also have interest.
Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst confirmed Monday that Cousins is one of the options the team has discussed after losing Malik Willis in free agency. Desmond Ridder and Kyle McCord are the two quarterbacks currently behind Jordan Love.
“Yeah, we’ve discussed a lot of those options,” Gutekunst said when asked about Cousins, via Matt Schneidman of TheAthletic.com. “Obviously that’s a guy who’s got a lot of pelts on the wall in this league, so we’ve certainly discussed all those kind of things.”
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur was the quarterbacks coach in Washington during Cousins’ first two seasons in the league (2012-13).
Cousins started eight games last season as the backup to Michael Penix, who tore his ACL in Week 11 against Carolina.
Cousins has thrown for 44,700 yards with 298 touchdowns and 131 interceptions in his 14-year career.
It isn’t an overstatement to say the Packers’ promising season ended with Micah Parsons’ torn ACL after 40 defensive snaps into the Week 15 game against the Broncos. The Packers lost that game and their next four games, including a wild-card playoff loss to the Bears to end their season.
Parsons, 26, has rehabbed in Dallas since Dr. Neal ElAttrache repaired Parsons’ torn ligament on Dec. 30.
The Packers recently sent head athletic trainer Nate Weir to Texas to check in on Parsons’ rehab.
“Everything’s good,” General Manager Brian Gutekunst said Monday at the NFL owners meetings, via video from Ryan Wood of USA Today. “We had our trainers down there with him not too long ago and came back with really good. It’s daily communication. He’s an exceptional athlete, and we’re hoping that takes over here pretty quick and the healing process goes fast.”
Gutekunst would not put a timeline on Parsons’ return.
“No, we’re really early in this,” Gutekunst said. “Obviously, we invested quite a bit in him, so we will be very protective of that investment as we go forward.”
Parsons proved worth the investment the Packers made in trading with the Cowboys for him and with the contract they gave him. He had 12.5 sacks and 79 pressures in 14 games, earning first-team All-Pro honors for a third time.
Back in January, there was some speculation as to whether or not Matt LaFleur would continue as head coach of the Packers.
That entire issue was put to rest quickly when word emerged that LaFleur had agreed to a contract extension on Jan. 17 — a week after Green Bay’s postseason loss to Chicago.
Was there ever any concern from his part that he wouldn’t be back?
“That was out of my control, so I tried not to worry about it too much,” LaFleur said at the annual league meeting in Phoenix on Monday. “I was confident in what we’ve been able to do. And certainly, are we satisfied? Hell no. Not even close. I mean, we always want more. Until you’re hoisting that Lombardi, you’re not going to be satisfied — and even then, you’re going to want to do it again.
“So, I’m certainly grateful for the opportunity. I love this organization. I love the city, the people, the community. But, I love our players, too. And going to work with Jordan Love every day is a pretty cool deal. I think he’s an unbelievable quarterback and an even better guy.”
But the Packers haven’t been able to get over the proverbial hump with LaFleur, particularly over the last few years. The club has been the NFC’s No. 7 seed in each of the last three seasons, falling in the wild card round in 2024 and 2025.
Part of that is playing better in the regular season so that the Packers aren’t on the road to begin the playoffs.
“You’ve got to capitalize on the opportunities,” LaFleur said. “I think if you look back last season, there were multiple instances where we didn’t get it done where we were in a position — whether it was Cleveland, Dallas, Carolina, Philly, both Chicago games — where a play goes different and you have a different result. But it didn’t.
“So, you’ve got to own it, you’ve got to try to learn from it, and just move forward. But I just think it’s going to take a consistent approach.”
