Micah Parsons has chosen the nuclear option.
On Friday, Parsons went public with demands for a trade, citing the drawn out process of negotiating his extension with the Cowboys.
Parsons wrote that the Cowboys’ front office had repeatedly refused to negotiate with his agent on a potential deal, and expressed frustrating that Jerry Jones seemed to prefer to negotiate with him directly.
Parsons also expressed that he had been pushing for the extension for a while, even against his agent's wishes, and that he was ready to leave money on the table if it meant getting a deal done with Dallas. In his statement, Parsons explained that he had inquired about an extension before the 2024 season, but had understood when the Cowboys said they didn’t want to worry about it yet. Once the offseason began, he was ready to put ink to paper, but the Cowboys apparently weren’t.
“After the season I told my agent once again to let the team know we were open to negotiate when they met at the combine,” Parsons wrote. “My agent informed me I should wait for other deals to get done because the price would only go up but I didn't care and wanted to secure myself as a Cowboy long term. This was before any of the other pass rushers deals got done this offseason. I knew I would be leaving money on the table but again I was ok with that. Again radio silence as far as my extension.”
What happened next was just like Parsons and his agent predicted—three successive contracts reset the market for high-end NFL defenders, pushing the price tag of Parsons's individual deal higher and higher. Now with T.J. Watt’s newest extension set to pay him $41 million per, a new bar has been set.
Had the Cowboys come to the table last year, they could have likely saved at least $8 million per year on Parsons’s next deal, maybe more. Instead, the Cowboys missed their chance to pay Parsons a more than reasonable rate, and now are appearing to balk at the thought of paying a much higher, still reasonable rate.
While we’re still a long, long way from Parsons leaving Dallas, it’s clear that the mood is not currently too pleasant at Cowboys training camp. A nine-figure deal can heal a lot of wounds, but sometimes it’s easier not to get cut in the first place.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Micah Parsons Says He Was Willing to Take Less Money to Sign With Cowboys Early.
