OXNARD, Calif. – Even without a contract, Micah Parsons is here, with the rest of his teammates at the start of Cowboys training camp.
Ok, so what does that actually mean? Well, as of Monday afternoon – the day before the first official practice – it's unclear whether or not Parsons will actually practice with the team.
Parsons is here, so he won't be subject to a fine, obviously, ending any speculation of a holdout, as we've seen the last two years with Zack Martin (2023) and CeeDee Lamb (2024), but the Cowboys are anticipating a chance for a "hold-in" situation, meaning Parsons could be sitting out of practices and/or meetings as contract talks continue for a new deal.
First-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer was asked specifically what will happen if Micah doesn't indeed practice with the team.
"You work every day. However this thing plays out, it's going to play out," Schottenheimer said. "The fact that Micah is here, he's talked all off-season about wanting to take more of a leadership role. He's talked about wanting to be great. We know he's a great player and again, I think we're excited he's here. There's a lot of ways to get this thing gone. But like we've said, we're committed to having him take that next step, not just as a player, but as a leader."
Parsons was one of the first calls Schottenheimer made when he became the head coach and it was time to begin the team's off-season program. He didn't ask Parsons to attend every day of the "voluntary" OTA practices, but he did ask him to have some kind of presence, knowing just how important that would be for the rest of the players.
Schottenheimer said he has kept up "good communication" with Parsons via text messages and calls.
And make no mistake, whether he's practicing fully or not, Parsons will probably be right in the middle of Schottenheimer's "compete every day" mantra. The coach didn't go into detail because the players have yet to hear the plan, but he did hint at a variety of sporting competitions here at camp and the ultra-competitive Parsons likely won't miss any of that.
So far this offseason, Schottenheimer has installed a ping pong table inside the locker room at The Star and a mini basketball game where the team has held free-throw competitions. Needless to say there will be more of those type of events here in Oxnard.
Parsons probably won't skip any of those. But as far as the actual football practices and meetings go, that will remain to be seen.
