Category: Micah Parsons

Cowboys officially pick up 5th-year option on Micah Parsons

From @ToddBrock24f7: As expected, the Cowboys will lock in Parsons for 2025 for $21.32 million, unless the sides come to a long-term extension agreement prior.

The Cowboys said back in early March they would do it, and on Wednesday they finally did.

The team has officially picked up the fifth-year option on Micah Parsons, as reported by Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News, who cited “a person familiar with the move.”

Parsons is now locked in to make a fully guaranteed $21.32 million for the 2025 season unless he and the front office come to a new long-term agreement before the ’25 season begins.

That dollar amount is the fifth-year option price for a defensive end, which is where Parsons played the majority of his snaps last year. Had he been officially classified as a linebacker, the option price would have jumped to $24 million.

Wide receiver and Cowboys teammate CeeDee Lamb is currently set to make $17.99 million playing this season on his fifth-year option, a tactic reserved for clubs to use on first-round draft picks once they near the end of their standard four-year rookie deals.

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The Cowboys have said they hope to sign Parsons to a long-term contract extension, but they have also said the same about Lamb and quarterback Dak Prescott. None has yet reached an agreement with the organization.

When it does happen, Parsons’s extension is widely expected to make him the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history, topping the $34 million average annual salary the San Francisco 49ers currently pay defensive end Nick Bosa.

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Report: Micah Parsons’ absence from Cowboys workouts not contract-related

From @ToddBrock24f7: The 3x-Pro Bowler is said to be working out on his own for the second year in a row, not staying away from the team in a contract dispute.

Micah Parsons’s absence from the opening of the Cowboys’ offseason workouts comes with an important caveat that differentiates his lack of attendance from that of teammate CeeDee Lamb.

According to Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News, a “person close to” Parsons has explained that the 24-year-old is simply training on his own rather than participate in the voluntary workouts that began at The Star on Monday.

That matches what Parsons did last offseason, too. Fans will recall he spent the early part of spring 2023 following a customized regimen at The Kollective in Austin, Tex. at the hands of acclaimed professional trainer Mo Wells. Strength and conditioning, speed and agility, position-specific drills, range-of-motion exercises, yoga, stretching, nutrition: Parsons and Wells worked on all of it in an intense effort to add bulk to the defender’s frame and fine-tune his physique in preparation for more snaps and more time rushing opposing passers.

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Videos circulated online showing Parsons doing drills and racing fellow NFL stars like Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase and newly-drafted Cowboys teammate Deuce Vaughn. Even after his return to the team for OTAs, Parsons incorporated boxing and other sports into his routines.

The result was a 64-tackle, 14-sack season that earned him his third Pro Bowl nod, second-team All-Pro honors, and a third-place finish for the Defensive Player of the Year award.

Parsons may not be training with the team, but suffice it to say he’s more than likely putting in the work required to get himself ready for the season, and probably pushing harder than if he were in Frisco with everyone else.

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His spending April away from the Cowboys facility is not the same as Lamb’s absence, which can be directly chalked up to the lack of a new contract extension.

Entering his fourth pro season, Parsons is eligible for a new deal. He’s scheduled to make $2.99 million in 2024 and would see that increase to $21.32 million if he ends up playing 2025 on the fifth-year option that the Cowboys have indicated they’ll pick up.

But none of that appears to be why Parsons isn’t at The Star this week.

The Lion is simply doing his own thing before re-joining the pack.

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Micah Parsons also skips first day of Cowboys’ offseason work

From @ToddBrock24f7: Parsons and teammate CeeDee Lamb find themselves part of a larger discussion in Dallas about big-money contracts this offseason.

CeeDee Lamb wasn’t the only Cowboys star who elected not to show up at The Star for the first day of the team’s offseason program.

Edge rusher Micah Parsons was also nowhere to be found on Monday as teammates kicked off Phase One of the 2024 voluntary work sessions.

The 24-year-old did not join the team last year until OTAs began in late May, choosing instead to train on his own in the Austin area. Parsons spent that offseason adding several pounds of bulk to his frame in anticipation of a (mostly) full-time switch from off-the-ball linebacker to edge rusher.

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This time around, the perennial Defensive Player of the Year finalist finds himself one of three Cowboys superstars wondering about their long-term employment status with the club. While Parsons is just three years into his rookie contract and scheduled to earn $2.99 million in base salary, he is eligible for a new deal that would bind him to the Cowboys for the foreseeable future.

Nothing has happened in regard to that new contract, though, as Lamb and quarterback Dak Prescott are presumably ahead of Parsons in that line.

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The Cowboys have indicated they will pick up the fifth year of Parsons’s contract, theoretically pinning his 2025 pay at $21.32 million. That decision is due by May 2, but it could be rendered a moot point if the team and their former first-round draft pick can negotiate new terms before then.

In the meantime, the Cowboys and new defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer have already begun the preliminary classroom work on installing their revamped 2024 defense… without its most important player.

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Here’s why Cowboys ‘cheap route’ with Micah Parsons’ 5th-year option may matter

It probably won’t be too big of a deal in the long run, but there is some impact to the Cowboys finally choosing to call Parsons a DE. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys have stirred up their fanbase over the last couple of weeks. Really it’s been a chaotic two months since the Cowboys were ran over and through by the Green Bay Packers. There’s not a lot to be confident in for the longterm with head coach Mike McCarthy and his entire staff coaching on one-year deals. The quarterback and wideout combo who both finished in the top-five for offensive player of the year, Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, are both currently on the final year of their contracts as well.

Though those latter two might change at any minute, it certainly feels like Jerry Jones’ all-in decree was more about “do it or else“. And if that’s true, and long-term investments aren’t assured for anyone, some sense of calm appears to be hovering over the defense. Trevon Diggs already got his bag, but Micah Parsons is now eligible for extensions. That includes, as a former first-round pick, being eligible for the fifth-year option.

According to Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News, Parsons is going to soon be slapped with the team option that will secure his services for 2024.

But there’s a bit of a twist.

Despite the fact Parsons plays the large majority of his snaps on the defensive line the last two seasons, Parsons has remained with the linebacker label. And it’s not by chance, the club chooses how to classify each player every season. Traditionally, off-ball linebackers get paid less than edge rushers.

But the Cowboys are using the NFL’s inability (or unwillingness) to reclassify defensive positions to mirror the reality of the roles to their advantage.

3-4 edge rushers are technically linebackers, and because the league’s top-paid edge players are predominantly 34 OLBs like TJ Wat and Nick Bosa, the franchise tag amount for LB is currently higher than it is for defensive ends.

The fifth-year option amounts for players with two or more Pro Bowl appearances is based on the current year tag amounts for the position where the player spends the most time.

The Cowboys were able to use the less expensive defensive end amount. If the league classified them as edge vs off-ball, which is functionally correct, they wouldn’t be able to get away with the lesser amount.

Instead of Parsons’ option costing Dallas $24 million as a linebacker, the option is “only” $21.3 million.

Teams have to put guaranteed money in escrow so while a player might not see it when the contract is forged, the team has to produce the cash and tuck it away out of their investment control.

And while it seems a foregone conclusion the two sides will reach a long-term agreement before the 2025 season actually starts, this is not an insignificant difference.

NFL agents love to use forced guarantees when negotiating the guaranteed money in the deals with their top stars. Star players will often use the two-year tag amounts as the basis for what they will accept as the guarantee money in a long-term deal.

After all, a team that truly wants to keep a player beyond their contract can do so by using the franchise tag one year, then a second year that costs them 120% of the prior year.

With the fifth-year option being guaranteed, that amount is assuredly going to be involved with any long-term negotiation between the Cowboys and Parsons agent.

 

Cowboys’ Micah Parsons told Jerry Jones exactly what the Dallas defense needs

From @ToddBrock24f7: Parsons got some 1-on-1 time with the boss at Super Bowl LVIII, and the LB had opinions on how the Cowboys can improve defensively in ’24.

When asked for his opinion, Micah Parsons will never hold back.

The Cowboys linebacker certainly didn’t hold back in Indianapolis this weekend at the NBA All-Star Game. First, he sent America’s No. 1 Cowboys hater Stephen A. Smith to the hospital for X-rays after Smith took a spill during some one-on-one with Parsons during shooting practice. Then during Friday night’s All-Star Celebrity Game, Parsons dropped 37 points and added 16 boards and four steals to win MVP honors in a win over Smith’s team.

In between, the two chatted about how the Cowboys’ 2023 season ended and how things might be different come 2024.

And oh yes, Parsons had thoughts.

During a wide-ranging interview for The Stephen A. Smith Show, Parsons explained he was “excited” about the “fresh start” that new defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer will bring, he offered his perspective on teammate Demarcus Lawrence’s recent comments about the Cowboys being “burnt out” in their surprising playoff loss to Green Bay, and he stood up for Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott amid criticism from many (including Smith) despite his career-best season.

And he also shared exactly what he believes the Cowboys defense needs in order to take the next step forward.

But it wasn’t just Parsons spitballing on a podcast. It was a recap of an in-person conversation he had just had with none other than Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on the subject.

Parsons explained to Smith that he bumped into Jones at their Las Vegas hotel last weekend and was able to parlay that into several hours of quality face time with his boss at the biggest sporting event of the year.

“Jerry sent me four extra tickets to the Super Bowl suite,” Parsons shared. “And we just sat and talked, from before the game until the whole half, about players I want to bring in, players I want to be around, who do I need, who do I want to be with, the future of our team.”

According to Parsons, he held up the teams that advanced to the NFC and AFC championships as models to emulate.

“I told Jerry, ‘Look at every team that was in that final four.'”

Specifically, he looked at two key areas of the 49ers’, Lions’, Ravens’, and Chiefs’ defenses.

“A great linebacker corps, right?” Parsons pointed out. “We need to get another bigger linebacker who’s going to come downhill. We need to get a super, 300-[pound], nasty interior [defensive lineman]. Look at how [the 49ers’] Arik Armstead and Javon Hargrave caused havoc in the last two games. Look at how Alim McNeill in Detroit in their front, with [Aiden] Hutchinson and all of them. It’s just certain things I was pinpointing. We can build in this, because we’re slim. … Because I saw the way [Kansas City DT] Chris Jones affected that Super Bowl, and I was like, ‘My God.'”

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The Cowboys likely thought they were set at both positions Parsons mentioned heading into the 2023 season. A preseason injury to rookie DeMarvion Overshown thinned the linebacker room early, and the loss of Leighton Vander Esch after just five games forced the team to go into emergency mode with smaller, lighter defensive backs moonlighting at the mid-level.

As for the interior D-line, first-round draft pick Mazi Smith was expected to be the kind of immovable object Parsons alluded to. But the 337-pounder reportedly lost a lot of weight over the course of the season and never made much of an impact in his first pro season. Veteran Johnathan Hankins played well, but missed a few key games late in the year due to injury.

Linebacker and defensive tackle are indeed expected to be areas that the team addresses this offseason, either through free agency or the draft. Zimmer will no doubt have heavy input on exactly how the Cowboys do that.

And should he need a sounding board, Parsons will be more than happy to throw in his two cents.

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Micah, Mike and the Mike: Zimmer’s scheme, personality will determine Cowboys success in 2024

A video dive into the fronts, coverages new DC Mike Zimmer will deploy in Dallas, along with the most important question of player buy-in. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The relationship between a defensive coordinator and his troops is not an insignificant one. Especially in Dallas, where that role is essentially head coach of the defense and the DC operates with relative autonomy over his side of the ball.

Going from a player’s coach to a no-nonsense disciplinarian is not always going to be a smooth transition. On the latest episode of Catch This Fade, PFF editor John Owning joined to discuss the Cowboys’ hiring of Mike Zimmer to replace Dan Quinn. Amidst the conversation about the types of fronts Zimmer will deploy to hopefully improve Dallas’ run defense, and the complex secondary coverages he will deploy and require his DBs to sync within, is conversation about how Micah Parsons will take to the dramatic shift in tone during practice.

Micah Parsons sends Cowboys hater Stephen A. Smith to hospital after basketball mishap

From @ToddBrock24f7: A practice session for the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game ended with the noted Cowboys hater going to the hospital for ankle X-rays.

Even in practice- even in a different sport– Micah Parsons doesn’t hold back.

And now ESPN’s No. 1 Cowboys hater knows that, though there may be multiple sides to the story.

First Take host Stephen A. Smith apparently found out the hard way during a basketball practice session in Indianapolis late Thursday. Smith is slated to serve as one of the coaches in Friday’s NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, opposite Shannon Sharpe.

During the practice, the two went one-on-one at some point, and Parsons reportedly executed a crossover move that Smith- and his 56-year-old ankles- weren’t ready for.

“And all I know,” Molly Qerim said on the air Friday morning, “is Stephen A. is at the hospital right now, getting X-rays.”

NFL insider Adam Schefter has since reported that Smith is in an ankle brace but still plans to coach at Friday night’s game.

Later during the show, Smith made an appearance to give his side of the story.

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“The next thing you know, that damn Micah Parsons is on the basketball court acting like he’s trying to sack quarterbacks or something and pushing people around,” Smith complained.

And though he confirmed that Parsons was going all-out in practice, he blamed court conditions for his injury.

“He and I were shooting around, shooting against one another, and there was some sweat on the floor. And I was literally about to pull up and just shoot it. I literally bust my ass. I mean, feet flying in the air, bam! It was like I was sliding into third base. ”

Smith maintains he felt fine leaving the arena and wasn’t bothered by his ankle until later that night.

Parsons isn’t the only NFL notable hooping it up at the celebrity event. Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman, and Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua are also scheduled to participate.

The game will air on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, when Parsons will no doubt be asked for his recollections on what exactly happened.

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Cowboys’ Micah Parsons has message for Commanders about new HC Dan Quinn

From @ToddBrock24f7: The LB will see his former DC on the sideline of the Cowboys’ most storied rival, but he knows the Commanders are getting a quality coach.

When Micah Parsons left for the Pro Bowl Games in Orlando, Dan Quinn was still his defensive coordinator. When he gets back, though, that office at The Star will be empty. And maybe a little piece of the 26-year-old linebacker is suddenly gone, too.

Quinn was the only defensive coordinator Parsons had known in his three years as a Dallas Cowboy. In that time, Quinn took a first-round draft pick who many weren’t sure how to evaluate after he opted out of the 2020 season at Penn State and turned him- almost immediately- into one of the most feared defenders in the pro game.

Parsons was named Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2021, finished second for Defensive Player of the Year last season, and is a finalist for the award again this year. He has three All-Pro nods. He’s attending his third Pro Bowl.

And Quinn just signed on as the new head coach of the Washington Commanders.

NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe caught up with Parsons this weekend and asked him about seeing his mentor go.

“Super happy for him,” Parsons said. “Q’s like a big uncle to me. I know how much this means for him, and I know it’s a step he wanted to take. He stayed with me as long as he could. Any team out there is lucky to have him.”

 

In his first official statement as Commanders head coach, Quinn looked back with love on his tenure in Dallas.

“I want to thank Jerry Jones, Stephen Jones, Coach Mike McCarthy, and the entire Dallas Cowboys organization for the past three seasons,” Quinn said. “The players, coaching staff, and everyone across the organization became family in such a short time.”

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Parsons also had a message this weekend, one for his Commanders counterparts in regard to the man who’ll be leading them soon.

“They’re getting a real, upstanding, outstanding guy, man,” Parsons told Wolfe. “I hope those players buy in and play with extreme heart for him. Understand that no one’s going to love them and care more about them than Dan Quinn. Please appreciate his presence, appreciate his greatness, and take of my guy.”

Dallas and Washington have met 128 total times on the field, including playoffs. But the next one will hit very differently for Parsons. And probably for Quinn, too, as the two men who became family will, at least twice a year for the foreseeable future, now face each other from opposite sidelines.

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‘I just want to win’: Cowboys’ Micah Parsons addresses playoff loss, positional questions, 2024’s outlook

From @ToddBrock24f7: The outspoken LB finally did speak out about how the Cowboys’ season ended and his own role in a defense that he says got “outschemed.”

Micah Parsons says he was reluctant to show his face in public for a while after the Cowboys’ devastating wild-card round playoff loss to Green Bay. The Dallas linebacker got out of the country with family for a while to purge the 48-32 defeat from his system, but he nevertheless heard some of the chatter that followed about how he didn’t seem to care much when things went off the rails early versus Jordan Love and the Packers.

Speaking Wednesday from Orlando, he answered some of those questions.

Saying he was ready to “speak my piece,” the third-year superstar came right out of the gates on his latest episode of The Edge with Micah Parsons on Bleacher Report by stressing how badly he wanted to win that game and see Dallas advance in the postseason.

“If you think I was okay with that loss or how we lost,” Parsons said, “you’re obviously delusional. Very delusional.”

The 24-year-old called the team’s performance “completely embarrassing and unacceptable,” and tried to explain to fans how it went wrong.

“At the end of the day, we were just outperformed, outschemed, however you want to put it. They had an answer for everything.”

That goes for both defense and offense, but Parsons was quick to throw his support behind embattled Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who simply couldn’t dig his unit out of a deep hole despite having turned in an MVP-caliber year.

“We gave up over 40 points. What do you expect Dak Prescott to be? Do you expect him to be Superman? He cannot win games by himself,” Parsons said. “I do not put that on Dak Prescott.”

The three-time Pro Bowler also addressed buzz over his usage on the field. While technically listed as a linebacker, Parsons has become used more as an edge rusher. And he was extraordinarily effective, tallying a career-best 14 sacks on the season.

But whichever slot Parsons occupies most, when the Cowboys get exposed as they did by Green Bay, the knee-jerk reaction has been to complain that Parsons wasn’t deployed enough at the other position.

Some have even intimated that Parsons himself refuses to line up as a ‘backer because it would reduce his sack totals.

Parsons tried to put that rumor to bed.

“The packages are in for me to go to linebacker. There’s multiple packages, multiple variations. But I can only play what was called,” he explained. “I’ve told multiple players and coaches that I’m very fine playing linebacker- in the playoffs if that’s what you want me to do. I just want to win.”

As for the accusations that recently made the rounds on social media that Parsons doesn’t take his personal preparation seriously enough or selfishly puts his own individual glory above the team’s goals, Parsons subtly clapped back at that, too.

“I’m at full peace. I don’t think I could have done anything more to try to win that game, and that comes from watching film with the other guys in the room,” he said.

“I challenge anyone to actually go look at the game film and say that Micah didn’t play his heart out in that game or what more could I have done?”

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Parsons did not directly address the decision by the team to stand by head coach Mike McCarthy, and he didn’t mention defensive coordinator Dan Quinn by name. Parsons has referred to Quinn as a father figure in the past, but now Quinn is reportedly a strong contender for the head coaching job in Washington.

It could be the beginning of a time of dramatic change for Parsons, the Dallas defense, and the Cowboys locker room as a whole.

That’s what team owner Jerry Jones would have the outside world believe, anyway. And Parsons, for one, is optimistic that Jones’s “all in” comments made this week will hold true… and lead to better results in 2024.

“They’re talking about how we’re going ‘all in’ this year. Man, that’s what I would hope for,” said Parsons. “I hope that we go out and get the players that we’re missing, because we didn’t do that this year. I hope that we challenge ourselves to become better, become greater. For us.”

And maybe as the calendar once again turns to February twelve months from now, Parsons will be preparing-with his team- to play for a world championship instead of the all-star celebrity gala that’s staged the week before.

“This is not where I want to be sitting right now,” Parsons admitted, “telling you about what we’re doing at the Pro Bowl.”

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ESPN+: Prescott is 2023 MVP, 7 Cowboys make Walder’s top-100 ballot

The Cowboys have a ton of talent, and while it clearly doesn’t guarantee results when it matters, it is better than not having any. | From @KDDrummondNFL

ESPN’s Seth Walder is one of the finest analytical minds the football world has to offer. Walder is the face of metrics that help explain the why of what happens, such as pass-block win rates, double-team rates, motion-at-the-snap rates and others. He doesn’t do it by himself, of course, ESPN has a vast network of analytical guys and girls that pour hours into quantifying things beyond the eye test. Hopefully one day their work will be the driving force behind all of the talking-head opinions.

Haha. Still, in looking back on the 2023 regular season — it’s a shame the playoffs were totally cancelled this year and the NFL won’t return until September, right? Right?? — Walder has once again objected to the AP only going five deep when it comes to the MVP award. Instead, he rolls out his ballot that goes all the way to 100. Sitting atop the perch? Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott.

Prescott was one of three Cowboys to land in Walder’s top-eight, and one of seven to make the rankings overall. Not a lot of solace with such a disappointing end to the season, but Dallas does have a ton of talent on their roster. While it clearly doesn’t guarantee results, it’s certainly better to have than not.