News erupted on Thursday that the Dallas Cowboys traded Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers. The contract dispute between the two parties was ongoing and both sides needed to give way in order to settle it. Unfortunately for Cowboys Nation, Dallas remained stubborn until the very end.
NFL Network's Jane Slater spoke with Parsons on Thursday evening. According to Slater, the star defensive end said he went to the Cowboys to discuss a contract extension after the idea of trading him started piquing more interest and was leaked. He said he approached the team "with empathy" and was met with anything but that.
"The Cowboys response according to Parsons was 'play on the 5th year or leave,'" Slater reported.
Jerry Jones made it evident in his recent interview with Michael Irwin that he intended on Parsons playing under the final year of his rookie contract then keeping him in Dallas by means of the franchise tag. After Jones shared other comments about Parsons' agent, the former Nittany Lion made his stance clear on social media that his NFL home was "TBD."
Playing on the fifth year was never something Parsons would agree to, especially after the team shut his agent out and refused to involve him in the negotiation. In his goodbye message to Cowboys Nation he posted after the announcement of his trade, he said the only thing he wanted was fairness in the negotiation process and to have his agent involved.
I spoke with Micah Parsons this evening. He says “genuinely gonna miss ya’ll”
— Jane Slater (@SlaterNFL) August 28, 2025
He says he and his team went back to the Cowboys about an extension with “empathy” when the trade interest was leaked this week.
The Cowboys response according to Parsons was “play on the 5th year…
If Parsons' side of the story is true regarding him approaching the Cowboys to discuss an extension to avoid a trade, fans are going to be furious at Dallas — and rightfully so. Now, it's not just the team not involving Parsons' agent in the contract negotiation, it's the team making conditions for the defenseman to stay more unreasonable and unjustifiable.
Refusal to budge in the matter cost the team one of the best defensemen in the NFL, and it should've never even got to the point where that was a possibility.
According to Jones in his interview with Irwin, he said he made the frame for an extension that would guarantee Parsons the most money of any defenseman in NFL history. Now as a Packer, he is under a four-year $188 million deal with $136 million guaranteed. He's the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history, and he could have had that in Dallas if the Cowboys gave in just a little.