Stephen Jones pushes back on Cowboys ‘dragging’ out contract negotiations

Just a couple days away from the calendar flipping to August, Micah Parsons is still without a contract extension. No agreement has come with the Dallas Cowboys as training camp has gotten underway. A recurring theme for the franchise throughout the years, much to the frustration of outsiders.

Even so, Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones pushed back on the idea of the front office “dragging out” contract negotiations. Jones says deals are executed when opportunities present themselves, needing both sides to be aligned.

“We don’t agree on that,” Jones said via 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “We don’t drag deals out. We do deals when there’s an opportunity to do a deal. Certainly, no one knows what goes on internally with a particular negotiation. Sometimes players and agents aren’t ready to pull the trigger until they see other cards played.”

The Parsons situation comes around a year after Dallas went through most of training camp without CeeDee Lamb. Dak Prescott was looking for a new contract too but decided to still practice with the team. Both guys eventually got done closer to the beginning of the regular season.

Fans out there would express frustration with the Cowboys’ inability to get the job wrapped up on an earlier timeline. But Jones explains they will not make a rash decision just to get a negotiation resolved. Especially with internal players who have expressed a desire to stay with the organization.

“What we’re not going to do is go out and do something that’s not responsible in terms of just in the name of getting a deal done one month earlier go do it and pay the guy another $5 million of your cap space,” Jones said. “Especially when you’re dealing, in our particular case, internally with guys who are homegrown here and we feel like they want to be here. I felt like Dak wanted to be here. I always felt like CeeDee wanted to be here.”

No timeline has been presented for the Parsons contract situation. The Dallas star is present in Oxnard — however, he is not fully practicing with the team. Parsons does hope his presence shows a little bit of leadership, something the Joneses are looking for out of their highly-paid players.

You have to imagine Sept. 4 will be an important date for everyone involved. Dallas will be in Philadelphia for the season opener against the Eagles. Whether or not Parsons has an extension by then might tell us what the future holds.