Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons is at training camp in Oxnard, California, but he is not practicing as he waits for a contract extension. Last year, quarterback Dak Prescott was where Parsons is.
Prescott, though, practiced with the team before finally agreeing to a four-year, $240 million deal on the day of the season opener.
As Parsons pointed out earlier this week, the Cowboys are doing the same thing to him they did to Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Ezekiel Elliott and Zack Martin. Lamb signed 12 days before the 2024 season opener. Martin missed 21 days of training camp in 2023 before agreeing to a reworked deal. Elliott held out until the week of the 2019 season opener when he signed an extension.
Same time, this year. . . .
“I mean, it’s an every year conversation,” Prescott said, via Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News. “Whether it’s myself, Zack Martin, CeeDee Lamb, now Micah Parsons. It’s part of it in a sense. It’s something that I wouldn’t wish anyone was going through. Absolutely not.”
Parsons reported to camp on time but is not participating in on-field work.
“I think Micah is doing a helluva job with being here,” Prescott said. “He’s a great teammate. He shows up, not just on the practice field and being focused, being the camaraderie [with the players], [going to] dinner. He’s not just doing it to sign off and say ‘Hey, Jerry [Jones], look at me.’ He wants to be out there practicing and honestly I’m glad he’s not. He can’t do that to himself.”
Parsons said the Cowboys have yet to return a phone call from his agent, so he’s in camp but watching and waiting.
“That’s the business of it,” Prescott said. “That’s the business of a holdout. I think he’s taking some great steps in being here. I don’t know if there’s a correct way to handle it, to be honest with you. I will say that I think he deserves to get paid. He should get paid and ultimately, going off the history from what I’ve seen, he will get paid. Hopefully it’s sooner than later.”
Prescott actually has had to wait twice for contract extensions, betting on himself twice, and he now has highest-annual average of any player in NFL history at $60 million. Parsons is expected to become the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL, topping Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt, who signed a three-year, $123 million extension this week.
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