FRISCO, Texas – With exactly one week left to go before the Cowboys open the season against the Philadelphia Eagles, Micah Parsons remains without a contract extension.
On Friday, the Cowboys' "game week" begins with their first practice to prepare to face the reigning Super Bowl champions on the road. If Parsons is going to play much or if it all, his participation in practice would be encouraged.
Sure, Parsons could just show up and play on September 4 if there's a new deal in tow or if he just decides to. Brian Schottenheimer has reiterated his confidence in saying that Parsons will be with the team and on the field to open the season, even if it's not for the full game.
Now that we've taken a look at future possibilities, let's go back in time and track the last 18 months of how Parsons and the Cowboys got to this point.
February, 2024: Parsons says he wants to be with Cowboys "for life"
Following a disappointing end to the 2023 season, the Cowboys faced two major contract extensions in front of them: Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb.
Parsons was eligible too, but understood that those two were at the time, the priority. Nonetheless, he was willing to talk about the future with the team and made clear that he wanted to be in Dallas for the rest of his career.
"If they're ready to talk about a deal and get a deal done, I'll be super excited," Parsons told NFL Network. "You know I'm ready to be [with the] Cowboys for life, this is the team I wanted to be with, this is the team I want to win a championship with."
August/September, 2024: Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb sign extensions
After holding out from OTAs and training camp, CeeDee Lamb signed a four-year, $136 million extension on August 26 to remain in Dallas. That was the first domino.
The second fell 13 days later, when Dak Prescott signed a four-year, $240 million extension just hours before the season opener against the Browns.
With two of their best offensive players taken care of financially, all eyes then turned to Parsons going forward.
December, 2024: Parsons: "I don't need $40 million"
As an offseason where several other top pass rushers like Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt and Trey Hendrickson neared, Parsons' name was firmly in that mix too. His advantage over all of them from a financial standpoint was that he was only 26 years old and still on his rookie deal, and yet still Parsons wasn't looking for a huge jump to the market.
"I think I'm the best player in the world," Parsons said in December. "I don't throw numbers out there like that. I'll see what they're willing to give me. … I don't need $40 million."
It's important to keep that quote in context. At the time Parsons said it, the highest-paid non-QB contract was around $35-36 million. Parsons wanted to break that number, but didn't need to have it bumped all the way up to 40 at the time being.
January, 2025: Jones and Parsons meet at the Cotton Bowl
Ahead of Texas and Ohio State's College Football Playoff semifinal game at AT&T Stadium, Jerry Jones said that he and Parsons would meet at the game. When asked about what Parsons would want to discuss with Jones, contract certainly came to mind, but wasn't the sole purpose of their conversation.
"It's all going to start just at the roots of, 'Where do you see us going? How can we become contenders? How do we bounce back from this year? What are the plans?' Those are the types of things that I would ask, and I hope he asks me things, too." Parsons said.
March, 2025: Myles Garrett resets market with $40 million per year
On March 9, everything changed in the pass rusher and non-QB market when the Browns signed Myles Garrett to a four-year, $160 million extension. That gave him $40 million in average annual value, a big number that loomed over other players seeking a new deal like Parsons, Watt and Hendrickson.
March/April, 2025: Jones and Parsons meet again, go over contract details
Although no specific date was given, Jones and Parsons met at some point in March and had conversations about Parsons' extension. Jones said that the two had hashed out most of the details of the deal, but that nothing was official yet.
"I've spent five, six hours with him myself," Jones said. "Had a lot of discussions, most of the issues we're in agreement on, and I've discussed it all. But we obviously don't have an agreement relative to a new contract, Micah's under contract, and so we'll see how that goes. It's not uncommon for me to visit directly with players, and in this particular case, that's the way I'm doing it."
As far as anyone knows, this was the last time Jones and Parsons had contractual discussions. In Jones' mind, the conversation they shared was a contract negotiation and he made his offer. In Parsons' mind, it was more of a conversation about leadership, and he made clear he wouldn't be negotiating without his agent involved.
July, 2025: Watt signs extension, training camp begins, Parsons "holds-in"
The next non-QB contract domino fell on July 17 with Steelers pass rusher T.J. Watt agreeing to a three-year, $123 million extension. That bumped the AAV record for a non-QB to $41 million per year, which is good for the most in NFL history.
Five days later marked the first day of practice for the Cowboys at training camp in Oxnard, where Micah Parsons officially began his "hold-in" by not participating on the practice field but still being with the team.
At the conclusion of practice, Parsons and Trevon Diggs held court with reporters, where Parsons was asked about his contract situation.
"There's really not much movement," Parsons said. "I want to be here. But at the end of the day, they sign the checks, like always. Let's see if they want me to be here at the end of the day."
August 1, 2025: Parsons officially requests a trade
On August 1, Parsons took to social media to announce that he had officially requested a trade out of Dallas.
"After repeated shots at myself and all the narratives I have made a tough decision I no longer want to play for the Dallas Cowboys. Parsons said in part of a longer statement on X.
In that statement, Parsons cited the conversation in March being misinterpreted as a contract negotiation and the Cowboys' not wanting to involve Parsons' agent in contract talks as a few reasons why he requested to be dealt.
August 2, 2025: Jones says he won't trade Parsons
At the end of the day, there is a difference between requesting a trade and being granted one. Very quickly, Jones made it clear that the Cowboys were not interested in trading Parsons, and that his trade request was just part of the process to getting a deal done.
"I think the world of Micah," Jones said. "And that [trade request] is just a part of negotiation."
Later on, he went on to say that he had offered Parsons "a helluva lot more than you think" in their initial meeting of the minds.
August 20, 2025: Schotty says Parsons will play Week 1
Caught in the midst of the entire negotiation is head coach Brian Schottenheimer, who is preparing for his first season of being an NFL head coach. He hadn't and still hasn't been able to watch Parsons participate in practice.
Nonetheless, he was confident that Parsons will be on the field and playing in Week 1.
"I think at the end of the day, we feel like Micah is going to be out there when we line up against Philadelphia here in 15 days or whatever it is. I feel good about that,"
August 21, 2025: Jones details holdup in Parsons' negotiations
Speaking on Michael Irvin's podcast, Jones discussed some of the holdups in the Cowboys' negotiations with Parsons, which largely centered around Parsons' agent, David Mulugheta, wanting to get involved after Jones thought a deal was already done.
"We had our agreements on term, amount, guarantees and everything. We were going to send it over to the agent. The agent said, 'Don't bother because we've got all that to negotiate,'" Jones said. "Well, I'd already negotiated that. I'd already moved off my mark on several areas. The issue, very frankly, is we've had the negotiation in my mind. The agent is trying to get his nose in it and trying to come in there and improve off what we've already said."
August 22, 2025: Parsons lays on medical table during preseason game, prompting conversation with Schottenheimer
After Jones' comments the day before, the Cowboys played their final preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons. Parsons arrived and was with the team, but was on the field without his jersey and had flipped a Cowboys jacket inside-out as to not show the team's logo.
He also spent a few minutes laying down on one of the medical tables behind the bench during the game, a moment that caught a lot of attention. A few days later, Schottenheimer sat down with Parsons to discuss the incident and other things.
"Micah and I had a long conversation," Schottenheimer said. "We probably talked for about an hour about a lot of different things, and addressed a number of different issues. At this point, I'm going to keep that between him and I, but we had a very, very good conversation."
Afterwards, Schottenheimer reiterated his confidence that Parsons would play against the Eagles on September 4. He also added details that Parsons had received an MRI on his back, which came back clean.
What's next?
And so, the clock continues to trickle downwards to next Thursday. In the meantime, a number of different things can happen.
Will the two sides finally come to an agreement? Will the Cowboys change their minds and trade Parsons? Will Parsons sit out games and miss game checks? Could Parsons' back soreness mean he can sit out without missing game checks?
At this point in time, there's been no movement in any direction.
