The Cowboys have a well-earned reputation for dragging their feet on doing deals for key players.
That doesn’t stop them from claiming they don’t.
“We don’t drag deals out,” Cowboys COO and co-owner Stephen Jones told 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, via Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “We do deals when there’s an opportunity to do a deal. Certainly, no one knows what’s going on . . . internally with agents. Sometimes players and agents aren’t ready to pull the trigger until they see other cards play.”
History contradicts him. They dragged their feet with quarterback Dak Prescott, forcing him to play out the fourth year of his rookie contract and one year of the franchise tag before finally getting his second deal done. They dragged their feet with running back Ezekiel Elliott until he forced the issue with a training camp holdout. Ditto for receiver CeeDee Lamb in 2024.
Last September, with Prescott on the brink of the final season of his second deal and with no way to keep him from becoming a free agent in March 2025, they finally extended him via contract that pays out much more than if they’d moved sooner.
Currently, they continue to drag their feet with linebacker Micah Parsons.
They could have extended his contract a year ago, when the top of the market was $34 million per year. They opted to let him play for $3 million and kick the can. Now, with the market at $41 million, they’re doing it again.
They’ll likely lowball Micah before Week 1. If he takes it, they win. If he doesn’t, he’ll play for $24 million before the two sides play the franchise-tag game in 2026.
Some teams (like the Eagles) move swiftly, securing long-term commitments early — and less expensively. The Cowboys don’t.
They can say they do as they want. The facts will keep saying otherwise.
Meanwhile, the Eagles currently are an elite team. And the Cowboys are not.
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