Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

“I’m Not Making Him the Highest Paid Defensive End” – Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones Receives Rare Support Amidst Micah Parsons Contract Standoff

Cowboys fanbase holds its breath as Parsons officially requests trade

Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

It seems like every other day that Micah Parsons and the Dallas Cowboys are in the headlines due to the contractual standoff between the two parties. On Friday, Parsons handed in a formal trade request to the organization’s management team and took to social media to make public his intentions of leaving Dallas.

Since then, there hasn’t been any update on the matter except for the fact that owner Jerry Jones assured the fanbase not to lose any sleep over the situation. While most of the Cowboys’ fans and many neutrals seem flabbergasted with the lack of effort from Jones to extend Parsons, the Cowboys’ owner has found an ally in the form of NFL analyst Colin Cowherd.

Thank you Dallas 🦁👑 🙏🏾! I pic.twitter.com/EUnEj9uRUt
— Micah Parsons (@MicahhParsons11) August 1, 2025

Colin Cowherd Is on Team Jerry Jones

On his podcast ‘The Herd’, host of the show and NFL analyst Colin Cowherd has come out in support of Jerry Jones, who is seemingly not ready to sign Parsons to the highest edge rusher contract in the league.

Cowherd himself has been critical of the Cowboys and, in particular, of Jones on several instances, but this time his thoughts are in line with those of the longtime Cowboys owner when it comes to making Parsons the highest-paid edge rusher.

During his podcast, Cowherd compared Parsons to all the other great pass rushers in the game and proceeded to simply say that the Cowboys’ star is not as good as them, and so does not warrant being paid like them.

“I like Micah. He’s a good player, but I’m not making him the highest paid defensive end. He’s not Miles Garrett. He’s not Aidan Hutchinson. He’s not Maxx Crosby. He’s not T.J. Watt. He’s not Nick Bosa. I like him a lot, but I’m not making him that highly coveted. CD Lamb is closer to the top of the receiving rankings in my opinion than Micah Parsons is on the pass rush.”

What Micah Parsons has done in four years with Dallas:

🏈4 Pro Bowls
🏈3x All-Pro
🏈Defensive Rookie of the Year
🏈52.5 sacks
🏈9 forced fumbles
🏈4 fumble recoveries

At age 26, he is now asking the team to trade him. https://t.co/nCe0gbPq2U
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 1, 2025

Interestingly, Cowherd also added the angle of Commanders’ wide receiver Terry McLaurin, who is also facing a similar situation in Washington. But, as per Cowherd, McLaurin’s case is different, as he has the right to push for a top-tier contract given his production in both the regular season and the postseason.

The postseason production of Parsons is where he is not on par with some of the other top pass rushers in the league. But, as for McLaurin, he has been on par with the other receivers in the league, but is still massively underpaid.

“Micah’s contract going into this year without a new contract would make him the fifth-highest edge rusher cap hit. That’s a totally appropriate contract. That’s not Terry McLaurin. Terry McLaurin has been a dog in the playoffs. He’s been unbelievable in the regular season.”

Are we sure Micah Parsons deserves to be the highest paid defensive end? @colincowherd pic.twitter.com/KVsz61xp9g
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) August 4, 2025

Even as Parsons is due to take the field in the last year of his rookie contract, the Cowboys still have the option of franchise tagging their star defender for the following year.

Last year, Jones took a similar route with Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, waiting until the final days before the start of the new season to sign the duo to massive extensions. And now, with the Parsons situation following on the similar path, one has to wonder if Jones will eventually make the 26-year-old the highest-earning pass rusher in the league.

Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Devavrat Kulkarni

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I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!