The contract dispute between Micah Parsons and the Cowboys officially ended on Thursday when Dallas traded the star defensive end to the Packers. To seal the deal, Green Bay made Parsons the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league, with a $47 million annual salary.
Now that Parsons's future is solidified, it's wild to think about what the last month or so has entailed regarding his contract situation. Here's a rundown of what transpired between Parsons and the Cowboys, specifically owner Jerry Jones, this summer.
Micah Parsons and Cowboys Contract Dispute Timeline
July 22: Parsons Shares Frustrations With Cowboys Amid Contract Dispute
At training camp on July 22, Parsons spoke with media and expressed his frustrations with Jerry and Stephen Jones not making many moves on his contract situation. He was pretty clear that if they wouldn't pay him what he felt he deserved, then he would know it was time to move on.
August 1: Parsons Requests Trade From Cowboys
Parsons aired his grievances with the Cowboys publicly in a lengthy Instagram post on Aug. 1 by requesting a trade from the team. In his statement, Parsons said that he had reached out to Jones and the Cowboys front office at the start of the previous offseason hoping to get a deal done early, but to no avail. He again reached out at the start of the 2025 offseason, but didn’t hear back.
Parsons also noted that while meeting with Jones to discuss team leadership in March, the Cowboys owner started talking about his next contract. Jones would later say he believed they had a deal in place, while Parsons said he told Jones to talk to his agent, which he never did.
In the immediate reaction to Parsons’s trade request, the Cowboys said they had no intention of trading their defensive star.
August 2: Jerry Jones Reassures Cowboys Fans About Not Trading Parsons
One day after Parsons requested a trade from the Cowboys, Jones confidently told Dallas fans, "don’t lose any sleep over this." He admitted he still hadn't spoken to Parsons, but he was very sure that the Cowboys would agree to a new deal with him before the regular season began.
August 5: Jones Still Hadn't Talked With Parsons
Cowboys fans definitely saw the Parsons situation as urgent. Jones said he did too, but it didn't seem that way from an outside perspective. Four days after the trade request, the Dallas owner still hadn't spoken with Parsons. That didn't make the situation sound very promising.
August 7: Parsons Misses Cowboys Practice With Medical Issue
Parsons missed his first training camp session because of back tightness on Aug. 7. He later went viral on Aug. 22 for laying on a medical table during Dallas' preseason contest (that he didn't play in), which his teammate Trevon Diggs said was also due to his back tightness. He underwent an MRI on it, too.
August 13: Jones Provides Another Conflicting Response Regarding Parsons's Future
When Jones was asked on Aug. 13 what was stopping him from negotiating a new deal with Parsons, he simply replied "nothing." He provided a more conflicting response afterwards saying "we might, or might not talk." That wasn't the best update for Cowboys fans.
August 19: ESPN's Adam Schefter Says Parsons–Cowboys Situation As Headed for Divorce
For the first couple weeks after Parsons's trade request, there was hope for Cowboys fans that the team would give their star edge rusher a new contract in order to keep him in Dallas. Well, on Aug. 19, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the situation was headed towards "divorce" at some point. The question was "when" and "how" not "if." Schefter ended up being right about the situation.
August 20: Brian Schottenheimer Thinks Parsons Will Play in Week 1
Despite the situation seemingly making no progress on the Cowboys side, Dallas coach Brian Schottenheimer told reporters on Aug. 20 that he could see Parsons playing in Week 1 for the Cowboys. His response made fans wonder what he knew that the outside didn't know yet, because how was he so positive about Parsons's future in Dallas?
August 21: Jones Shares His Side of the Negotiations, and Parsons's Agent Denies His Statements
Jones spoke with Michael Irvin about the Parsons negotiations on Aug. 21, sharing that Parsons's agent David Mulugheta told the Cowboys "to stick it up our ass." Jones reportedly offered Parsons a very lucrative deal that he claims Mulugheta didn't agree on.
However, Mulugheta quickly responded saying that the quote Jones gave is something he never said to him.
August 28: Parsons Is Traded to Packers
In the end, the Cowboys and Parsons couldn't agree on a deal to keep him in Dallas, and decided to pull off the second unforeseen blockbuster trade the city’s sports fans have lived through this year.
He became the highest-paid non-quarterback when Green Bay gave him a four-year, $188 million contract that includes $136 million in guaranteed money.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Timeline on Micah Parsons's Contract Dispute With Cowboys, Jerry Jones Before Trade.
