Micah Parsons’ agent reveals if Cowboys owner Jerry Jones offered record-breaking contract

David Mulugheta, the agent for Green Bay Packers pass rusher Micah Parsons, is setting the record straight on the contract Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones offered him. While appearing on ESPN’s First Take, Mulugheta was asked if Jones really offered Parsons a contract that would have made him the highest-paid non-QB in the NFL.

“That’s a loaded question,” David Mulugheta told First Take co-host Stephen A. Smith. “From an AP-wise standpoint, if you’re looking at the average that was offered to him, I believe it was 40.5 (million), which would have made him at the time, from an AP-wise standpoint, the highest paid. That being said, the way the cash flow is structured over his first three new years, he would not be paid as the highest-paid player in the NFL.”

When the Cowboys traded Micah Parsons to the Packers, he signed a four-year, $188 million contract, making his average salary $47 million. Mulugheta explained the difference between the deals that were offered to Parsons from the Cowboys and Packers.

Micah Parsons’ agent details the new contract with the Packers

“Another important part of the contract was a four-year deal vs. a five-year deal,” Mulugheta said. “When you look at that, that fifth new year could be the difference in $30 to $40 million for the player. If you look at where the pass-rusher market was a year ago, it was at $35 million or so with Nick Bosa. Now it’s at $47 million with Micah Parsons. …The difference between those two deals you’re looking at could be possibly $60/$70 million when it’s all said and done.”

The Cowboys’ trade of Parsons to the Packers was one of the more shocking moves in recent NFL history. Parsons is entering his fifth NFL season and has established himself as one of the top pass rushers in the league with four Pro Bowl appearances and being named to the All-Pro Team three times.

That leads to the question of why the Cowboys let Parsons go “This was a move to get us successful in the playoffs,” Jones said in a press conference last week. “This was a move to be better on defense, stopping the run. This was a move to, if we get behind, to not be run on.
It was a deliberate move, a well thought out move to make this happen.”