OXNARD, Calif. — When Micah Parsons announced his request for the Dallas Cowboys to trade him, he didn’t hear from team owner and general manager Jerry Jones.
But Parsons did hear from his quarterback Friday.
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Dak Prescott’s message: “F***, man.”
“He knows what that means,” Prescott told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday. “It wasn’t f*** you, Micah, or f*** them. It’s more of a f*** — this is frustrating for everybody involved.”
Prescott and Parsons exchanged messages about the reality of the edge rusher’s contract negotiations and the quarterback’s support for Parsons as both person and player.
Prescott twice went through lengthy contract negotiations with Jones and the Cowboys.
“Not many people, especially here, have been in that position,” Prescott figured, “so I know what that means just to support him.”
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The Cowboys ramped up their competition Tuesday with a joint practice against the Los Angeles Rams, the closest to real football many members of Dallas’ first-team roster will see between now and the Cowboys’ Sept. 4 season opener at the Philadelphia Eagles. But as he had with the Cowboys’ club-only practices, Parsons did not participate in the joint practice as he continued to hold “in.” Four days after Parsons posted his grievances with the Cowboys’ negotiations, and his desire for a trade, the two-time All-Pro remained on the sideline during practice.
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The Cowboys and Parsons’ agent, David Mulugheta, have not discussed a new deal this summer, multiple sources with knowledge of the negotiations (or lack thereof) confirmed to Yahoo Sports.
Parsons watched the joint practice while wearing his Cowboys jersey, his name and No. 11 in navy contrasting the white mesh background. Sweatpants and tennis shoes supplanted padded pants and cleats during his hold-in; Parsons wore a beanie rather than a helmet.
Parsons spent part of practice with Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs, who is working back from a knee injury. He spent another portion with former longtime Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth, with whom Parsons has worked to sharpen his game.
Parsons and Jones did not talk as they shared a sideline Tuesday, their standoff dating back to a March meeting that Jones considered an agreement and Parsons considered a conversation.
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Jones not only has not talked to Parsons since his Friday trade request — he has not communicated with his star edge rusher through more than two weeks of training camp in Oxnard together.
“Have I talked to Micah? I haven’t, no,” Jones told Yahoo Sports on his walk to practice Tuesday.
The team owner does not view an agreement as near, he said. He does not think in terms, ‘If I get X done, we’ll have a deal’?
“X’s,” Jones said when asked, emphasizing the multiple outstanding negotiating factors. “There’s not a single thing. There are X things that you do to make agreements.
“So I don’t view it as an X. I view it as X’s.”
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Why Prescott supports Parsons’ approach — even after QB didn’t take same approach in his negotiations
On July 24, three days into the Cowboys’ training camp practices, Prescott voiced support for Parsons’ approach to his business negotiations.
“He wants to be out there practicing, and honestly, I’m glad he’s not,” Prescott said then. “He can’t do that to himself. That’s the business of it and that’s the business of a holdout.”
Prescott praised Parsons’ attendance at camp, even if as a non-participant on the physically unable to perform list with an apparent back injury about which Jones has joked. Prescott said then that Parsons “deserves to get paid” and likely would.
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As two weeks passed and practices continue without Parsons challenging his offensive teammates nor building chemistry in a new defense, Prescott’s support has not wavered.
Prescott never missed training camp practices through his own two extension negotiations, the first of which spanned multiple years as he played out a franchise-tag designation. But Prescott doesn’t believe Parsons should compete on the field as his quarterback did.
“A big part of it is, I wear a red jersey,” Prescott said, referencing the extra caution afforded to quarterbacks. “I’m going to be protected unless something freakish happens. And if something freakish happens, then that could have happened walking to the car as well. So as far as Micah, the guy plays a completely different position where guys are getting tripped up, tumbled all the time. As far as business, you just can’t do that.
“You can’t put yourself out there at risk when you’ve got this much ahead of you and getting hurt could lessen not only that number, but diminish, I guess you could say, your value to people.”
Parsons enters the fifth-year option of his rookie deal with one of the best initial four career years the NFL has seen at edge rusher. His 52.5 sacks and 177 quarterback pressures are each the most of any active NFL player through the first four years of his career. Parsons similarly has outpaced the career starts of recently extended stars Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt with 256 tackles and 112 quarterback hits in four seasons.
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The Cowboys have said they want to pay Parsons, noting the holdup is a matter of how much and when rather than if. But the nonexistent negotiations, paired with Jones telling reporters Tuesday that he does not know whether Parsons will play the season opener, has not inspired confidence in an imminent resolution. Jones continues to repeat that he and Parsons had a deal in March that he wants to honor, even as Jones confirmed Tuesday to NFL Network that the deal was never in writing.
“I bought the Dallas Cowboys with a handshake,” Jones told NFL Network. “It took about 30 seconds. I gave the number, shook hands, the details we worked out later. As a matter of fact, one of the details involved a lot of money and I had to flip a coin over that. But the fundamental, ‘I’m buying and you’re gonna sell it to me for that range,’ that’s done. And those are done with eye contact and handshake.
“Just so you understand the way that I communicate with people that a I negotiate with. Let’s leave it at that. There’s is no question that in the case of a player contract, you have to have it in writing. All parties do.
“We have a contract in writing, yet we’re still talking about renegotiating, so so much for that.”
Micah Parsons remains a high-profile spectator on the Cowboys sideline at training camp amid a contract dispute. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
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Cowboys emphasizing communication — just not between Jones and Parsons’ camp
Brian Schottenheimer, in his first year as Cowboys head coach, isn’t ignoring Parsons’ hold-in but also isn’t dwelling on it.
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Schottenheimer said he focuses on relationships and communication, which he believes are two of his top strengths, to navigate distractions or situations that arise.
“I have real conversations with Jerry, I have real conversations with Stephen [Jones], I have real conversations with Micah,” Schottenheimer told Yahoo Sports. “I don’t shy away from the fact that there’s something going on, but I just have my one-on-one conversations. I make sure that I’m informed and they know where I stand on this.
“And I think anytime you do that, you sleep well at night because you know that there’s really no surprises coming around the corner.”
Jones similarly says that Parsons’ trade request, despite being unprecedented in recent Cowboys history, did not surprise him. He knows that trade requests pop up from players with other teams across the league, Garrett and Washington Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin two recent examples.
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“The fact that he, in essence, communicated with media doesn’t surprise me at all,” Jones said of Parsons’ social media post. “I don’t even get surprises when you’re involved.”
Jones downplayed his comments to reporters a day after Parsons posted his request.
“I didn’t call a meeting,” Jones said. “Micah wrote a letter. Well, we didn’t do that or call a meeting or want to talk to media. We just had the normal response that I have at the end of practice usually.
“The thing that I said, I would’ve said earlier [before the trade request and] I would’ve said later.”
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If recent Cowboys history is any indication, more will be said later before a deal nears, much less reaches, the finish line. There’s a real possibility that the Cowboys play out Parsons’ fifth-year option and place a franchise tag on him come spring.
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Prescott knows that from experiencing the tag firsthand before his initial extension, also knowing the possibility of last-minute deals after the Cowboys extended him last fall mere hours before they kicked off in Cleveland.
For now, Parsons is in the building, in meetings and at practice albeit not participating.
Prescott appreciates that.
“Obviously, I believe he should get paid,” Prescott said. “But I think he’s making the right approach by being at training camp because a lot of times [players] forget how much joy and love being around your teammates [brings] and how much of that is truly football when you’re focused on a contract and you’re just waiting for that to be done.
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“Being in the locker room allows you to still keep your joy for this game and to still understand the sacrifice you’re making with people. But hey, there’s a business side of it that, ‘I just can’t be out there with you guys because of potential injury risk’…
“He’s a guy that’s done a lot of this team and deserves to have his stance.”
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