The new football season brings another game show is being played by Dallas Cowboys owner (and the star of our show), Jerry Jones.
The weekend sports headlines percolated several stories featuring the 82-year old owner of the highest valued pro sports franchise ($10 billion and counting). Jones has inserted himself in the middle of yet another contract renegotiation with a key member of his football team.
The Micah Parsons Project
Dallas Cowboys defensive end/pass rushing specialist Micah Parsons is heading into the final year of his initial NFL contract.
The 26-year old played college football at Penn State and became a 2021 first round selection by Dallas.
Micah Parsons won the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award.
He has been named to the NFL Pro Bowl team in each of his four seasons in Dallas. The 6’3” 245 pound defender has averaged 13 quarterback sacks and 15 tackles for losses per season.
His performance for the Dallas Cowboys has been stellar.
However, Micah Parsons will “only” make $24 million this season as he enters the final year of his Dallas Cowboys contract.
Recent contract renegotiations with other top NFL defensive rushing specialists have provided Micah Parsons with additional leverage.
Pittsburgh Steelers defender T.J. Watt recently signed a 3-year $41 million per year extension. Cleveland Browns sack monster Myles Garrett received a 4-year $40 million per year contract extension a few months earlier.
Micah Parsons vs. Jerry Jones – Put your money on Micah
Did I say that Micah Parsons is also an avid chess player?
Conversely, Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones has been a one-man train wreck when it comes to making many key decisions concerning his football team.
Jones’ resume includes losing two of the top coaches in NFL history (Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells). He has made underachieving quarterbacks like Tony Romo and Dak Prescott among the highest paid players in the NFL during their prime.
Fans of the cartoon show Bullwinkle may remember a character named Captain Peter “Wrong Way” Peachfuzz.
The ship’s goofy leader always acted like he knew what he was doing. Yet, he continually made one bad move after another in trying to navigate his boat toward shore.
The history of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry “Wrong Way” Jones indicates that he is likely to make the wrong move in dealing with defensive end Micah Parsons.
My wife (who doesn’t follow sports closely) asked this morning, “Why is the owner of the Dallas Cowboys negotiating contract deals with the players? Shouldn’t someone else be handling that for the team?”
It is the same reason why a young two-time Super Bowl champion coach like Jimmy Johnson left the Cowboys in the 1990’s. The enormous ego of Jerry Jones insisted that he deserved to be receiving his fair share of the public’s love for his Dallas Cowboys football team.
I have no doubt that Ol’ Jer is quite sincere about his desire to win more Super Bowls.
Dallas is entering its 30th season without an appearance in a Super Bowl since January 28, 1996.
Team owner Jones (along with his family in charge of the team’s executive suite) remains the only constant during this 30-year Super Bowl drought for the Dallas Cowboys.
The 2024 football season kept Jerry Jones in the news – one way or the other
The calendar turned to 2024 as the owner of the Dallas Cowboys began to insert himself into the sports headlines.
His 12-5 NFC East Champion Dallas Cowboys were demolished 48-32 in January during a nationally televised home playoff beatdown administered by the 9-8 wild-card Green Bay Packers.
Fans slammed Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy for being outcoached in yet another early playoff exit.
Supporters of the Dallas Cowboys demanded that owner Jerry Jones fire McCarthy and hire a proven winner such as former New England Patriots coach Bill “Yes, I was available at the time” Belichick.
Jerry Jones seemed “done” with Coach McCarthy, too. He took a few weeks to contemplate making a coaching change in early 2024 but soon decided against it.
Mike McCarthy would be due about $8 million if his contract was terminated with one year to go.
The Dallas Cowboys owner (who seems notoriously cheap at times) kept his lame duck head coach around for his final season. Why pay him off when there wasn’t anyone else with better qualifications willing to come work for Jones?
Jones then told the media – for months – that he was going “All in” in 2024.
August, 2024 saw Dallas wide receiver CeeDee Lamb in a similar situation as Micah Parsons is today.
Lamb was entering the fifth year of his rookie contract and trying to get a better deal to stay with the Cowboys for the long-term.
The wide receiver skipped preseason workouts and August practices.
Jerry “The Negotiator” Jones acted as if Lamb’s absence didn’t matter.
It wasn’t until the final week of August (a week before the regular season) that Dallas owner Jerry Jones capitulated. He opened his wallet to give Lamb a new 4-year $35 million per year deal.
Dak Prescott wanted more money, too
At the same time, Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott was nearing the end of his second contract in Dallas entering the 2024 season.
The 32-year old quarterback had put up some gaudy regular season passing stats in recent years, but Prescott was just 2-5 in the post-season with Dallas.
Surprisingly, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made Dak Prescott the highest paid player in NFL history with a 4-year $60 million per season new contract signed in early September, 2024.
Jerry Jones had just paid $95 million per year to two of his 53 active players.
The 2024 NFL salary cap was $250 million. QB Prescott and wide receiver Lamb were making a whopping 38% of the team’s allotted payroll in 2024.
Ironically, Jerry Jones’ Dallas Cowboys “saved” $8 million by keeping a head coach who would lead the team to a 7-10 record in 2024.
Those two big money stars for the Cowboys suffered injuries during the 2024 season after signing their new expensive contracts.
Quarterback Dak Prescott sustained a season-ending hamstring injury where he missed nine of the team’s 17 games. Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb injured his shoulder during November, 2024 and was held out of the team’s final two games.
To summarize, it appeared that nearly every major decision which Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made in 2024 didn’t work out very well.
2025 isn’t off to a great start, either
Jones allowed Coach Mike McCarthy to twist in the wind by keeping him under contract until the day it expired in late January.
McCarthy missed an opportunity to apply for most of the open NFL head coaching jobs by being kept on the payroll through his final day under contract in Big D.
Likewise, owner Jerry Jones waited too long to find a new coach for his team. Most other top coaching candidates were signed by other NFL teams by that time in January.
Jones ultimately came to terms with one of Mike McCarthy’s assistant coaches to elevate him into his first head coaching role.
Jerry Jones reportedly paid offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer (son of Hall-of-Fame coach Marty Schottenheimer) $4.5 million per season as part of a new 4-year deal to become head coach in Dallas this season.
That is about 25% of what Kansas City coach Andy Reid is making and 50% of the pay going to Houston Texans’ young head coach DeMeco Ryans.
Jerry Jones should trade Micah Parsons ASAP. But will he?
One of the most lopsided trades in NFL history occurred when Dallas sent star running back Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings in October, 1989.
Dallas (under first year coach Jimmy Johnson) would end up with three first round draft picks, three second round selections, a third round pick and a sixth rounder.
Those selections were used to draft Hall-of-Fame running back Emmitt Smith, All-Pro defensive tackle Russell Maryland, and safety Darren Woodson and other key players.
Coach Jimmy Johnson led Dallas to consecutive Super Bowl victories in the 1992 and 1993 NFL seasons utilizing this new infusion of young talent. His successor, Barry Switzer, won a third Super Bowl following the 1995 season with those same players.
Dallas hasn’t played in a Super Bowl or even the NFC Championship game since then.
Jerry Jones should know that he cannot afford to pay Micah Parsons $35-40 million per season.
He would be paying three players (Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Parsons) a total of $130-135 million this season. That is more than half of the NFL salary cap for each team in 2025.
Jones says that he and Micah Parsons sat down in March and came to a gentleman’s agreement about the basic tenets of a new contract.
Parsons countered and said that Jerry Jones has subsequently refused to talk to Parsons’ agent to work out a new deal.
Jerry Jones advised the media recently that he prefers to speak directly with his players when negotiating a new contract.
Unsurprisingly, defensive end Micah Parsons spoke out about this issue last Friday and publicly demanded a trade from the Dallas Cowboys.
The NFL rumor mill already indicates that possible suitors might include the Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders.
Dallas should expect to receive one or, perhaps, two future first round draft picks along with one or more current players from the other team which could help the Cowboys this season.
Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones would be wise to answer all calls inquiring about Micah Parsons from other NFL teams over the next few weeks.
I think he should quickly make a determination and select the trade offer which might best help the Dallas Cowboys and conclude the deal prior to the end of August.
But, being Jerry Jones…???
The Dallas Cowboys owner might also capitulate (as he is prone to do) and pay Micah Parsons $35-40 million per year to satisfy the defensive end’s demands.
The chess-playing Micah Parsons knows that his opponent tends to back himself into a corner.
Here’s something to think about. How would you like to be one of those other 50 active players on the Dallas Cowboys roster?
Those other players are quite aware that quarterback Dak Prescott, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, and (perhaps) defensive end Micah Parsons would be making as much money as the combined pay of everyone else in the offensive or defensive huddles.
Football is considered the ultimate “team” game. The vast pay disparities could result in a very dysfunctional locker room environment in Dallas.
I wouldn’t bet against Jones giving Micah Parsons a new deal days before the start of the 2025 NFL season.
Only someone like “Wrong Way” Jerry Jones can (despite his good intentions) create this much mayhem for his pro football franchise – every single year.
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