Micah Parsons should not have shown up for training camp.
Owner Jerry Jones is going to lowball him. Guaranteed. And the only way to avoid it would have been to stay away.
Micah seems to realize it. He re-posted a tweet from J.J. Watt criticizing Jones for comments he made on Monday, during which he justified concerns about paying Parsons and quarterback Dak Prescott by pointing to time they missed due to injury in 2024.
“Just because we sign him doesn’t mean we’re gonna have him,” Jones said regarding Parsons. “He was hurt six games last year. Seriously. I remember signing a player for the highest paid at the position in the league and he got knocked out two thirds of the year. Dak Prescott. So there’s a lot of things you could think about when you’re — just as the player does — when you’re thinking about committing and guaranteeing money.”
For starters, Jones exaggerated the extent of the absences. Parsons missed four games with a high-ankle sprain, not six. Also, Prescott missed nine of 17 games (52.9 percent, not 66.667 percent) with a hamstring injury.
More important: Who gives a shit? Players get injured. You don’t lowball them because they might get injured. THEY DO. That’s the point of contracts that give them protection against injury. Without those protections, teams will be far more inclined to screw them.
As Watt put it, “Anytime you can publicly take a dig at your star quarterback and your star pass rusher simultaneously, right before the season begins, you just gotta take it… Nothing makes guys want to fight for you more than hearing how upset you are that they got hurt while fighting for you.”
Although the CBA is structured to make it much harder for a player to walk out after he shows up, Parsons may have to do it in order to get the best possible deal. If he doesn’t, Jones WILL lowball him and, if Micah doesn’t take the last, best offer, the Cowboys WILL kick the can until 2026.
If that happens, Parsons should demand a trade after the season to a team that will pay him what he’s worth, and that won’t use the inevitability of injury against him.
Meanwhile, Cowboys fans, is it really a mystery as to why your team hasn’t made it to the NFC Championship for 30 years and counting?