Cowboys’ Micah Parsons makes bold contract guarantee

The Dallas Cowboys have yet to come to a deal with Micah Parsons, but the All-Pro seemingly isn’t worried.

Despite the Cowboys slowly working on another extension — it took months for Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb to finalize deals last year — Parsons appears confident that he’s not only going to get a good deal, but it will be the biggest non-quarterback contract in NFL history, surpassing that of the Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett and Cincinnati Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase.

“Not really, because I’m just going to get mine no matter what,” Parsons said of Garrett’s contract affecting his value, via PennLive. “You know what I mean? Like, the markets change every year. Their salary cap went up, like, another 18% this year. So, if you want to know contracts, all the contracts are based off of percentage. Like, each player, a high-paid player, takes a percentage of the salary cap. So, it’s not really the number. It goes off by the salary cap.”

Although Parsons is likely right, it certainly does not hurt that Garrett and Chase are each making $40 million a year. No one else is above $35.6 million currently, a possible sign that teams are a little hesitant to commit that much money to someone who isn’t dropping back to pass.

Still, Parsons has set himself up perfectly to break the record set by Garrett and shortly thereafter re-set by Chase, whose $40.25 million annual average edged out Garrett after the latter signed a four-year, $160 million extension with $123.6 million guaranteed.

Parsons is three and a half years younger than Garrett and has missed just six games through the first four seasons of his NFL career (all six of which came this past season). He has never had a season with fewer than 12 sacks, and this past season marked the only time in those four years that he was not named an All-Pro.

The Cowboys have been greatly criticized for their contract extension strategy, which has prolonged some of their most high-profile negotiations and seemingly cost them a ton of money. In particular, after extended talks with Precott and Lamb, they each signed four-year deals that put them at or near the top of their respective positions’ salary rankings. Many fans and analysts believe each could have been signed at a lower cost if the Cowboys had not waited until after other players around the league increased the market value for both players.

The same surely could be said for Parsons, even if he believes the other numbers are irrelevant, although he, unlike many other players in a similar position, has not sat or held out amid negotiations.