Micah Parsons has 'got to want to be paid,' Cowboys executive says

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The Dallas Cowboys face one giant storyline going into the 2025 season, and it has to do with locking down one of the best defensive players the team has had in quite some time.

Micah Parsons is going into the final year of his rookie deal. He’s recorded 256 tackles, 63 tackles for a loss and 52.5 sacks in 63 career games. He’s been one of the best edge rushers in the NFL since he entered the league in 2021.

So, the question is, why wouldn’t he be paid?

Cowboys EVP and CEO Stephen Jones offered his two cents on the matter as fans have heckled his father, Jerry Jones, to pay Parsons.

“It doesn’t change anything,” Stephen Jones said of the fans’ heckling, via The Athletic. “We want to pay Micah too. He’s got to want to be paid.”

Top defensive players like Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt received their big-money paydays during the offseason, and it appears Parsons would be next in line. Dallas also extended tight end Jake Ferguson and defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa in the offseason.

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Parsons has been vocal this offseason about his contract, saying in June that a delay in signing him out ultimately cost the team more. He hinted at those deals when discussing his thoughts last week, saying he wished the Cowboys had the “same type of energy” as other organizations who locked down their star defensive players.

“If they don’t want me here, they don’t want me here,” Parsons said, via The New York Post. “I’ll go about my business. I understand the nature of the business. Like I said, as long as I’m here and under contract, I’m gonna do what I have to do to perform at the highest level. But if this is the end, this is the end.”

“I just don’t understand,” Parsons added about his situation.