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Another offseason, another round of drama for the Dallas Cowboys regarding contract negotiations for their latest star up for a new deal. Last offseason, it was quarterback Dak Prescott (four years, $260 million) and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb (four years, $136 million). Now, it's All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons' turn.

The 25-year-old four-time Pro Bowler is set to enter the 2025 season on his fifth-year option, the final year of his rookie deal, which is why he and the Cowboys have begun to engage in contract talks that kicked off at the College Football Playoff Cotton Bowl game in January. Parsons' 52.5 career sacks are the fifth-most in a player's first four seasons played since the NFL began tracking individual sacks as an official metric in 1982, and Parsons is the only player with at least 12 sacks in his first four seasons in the league. 

That's the type of player any franchise would want to keep around, but NFL Media reported Dallas has had internal conversations about trading Parsons instead of paying him.

"Our understanding is the Cowboys have had some internal discussions about potentially trading him," NFL Media league insider Ian Rapoport reported on Super Bowl Sunday. "No trade talks [with other teams]."

It would be near-Luka Doncic levels of shocking for the Cowboys to trade their superstar pass rusher in the middle of his twenties, and trade rumors before eventually re-signing their stars have been a pattern in Dallas the last few years. That pattern is also something Lamb, who went through this last offseason before re-signing, is sick of experiencing. 

"Y'all aren't tired of this?" Lamb tweeted on Super Bowl Sunday in reaction to Rapoport's report. Every offseason, top of the charts... Let's just win ball games and that's with 11! SMH."

In the past, Cowboys COO Stephen Jones has talked about being unsure about having a ton of money tied up in a handful of players. However the Super Bowl LIX champion Philadelphia Eagles, an NFC East division rival of the Cowboys, showed a team can certainly win it all while paying its best players well. Philadelphia has eight players with contracts whose total value is $50 million or higher, and six of those players' deals include average per year salaries of at least $20 million. Dallas only has four player contracts with total values above $50 million, and Prescott's ($60 million average per year) and Lamb's ($34 million average per year) deals are the only ones with an average per year salary of $20 million or more. Yet, the Eagles ($13.8 million in effective cap space) have more effective cap space entering the 2025 offseason than the Cowboys (-7.03 million in effective cap space), per OverTheCap.com. 

Eagles players with contracts of at least $50 million in total value entering 2025 season

Eagles players with contracts of at least $20 million in average per year salary entering 2025 season

  • QB Jalen Hurts ($51 million APY)
  • WR A.J. Brown ($32 million APY)
  • WR DeVonta Smith ($25 million APY)  
  • LT Jordan Mailata ($22 million APY)  
  • LG Landon Dickerson ($21 million APY)
  • RT Lane Johnson ($20 million APY )

How is this possible? Well, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman is proactive when it comes to extending his top players, typically re-signing them at least two years before their contract expires. That allows for him to structure those deals in ways that maximize Philadelphia's cap space each year with the NFL's 11-year, $110 billion media rights deal signed in 2021 raising the salary cap every offseason. Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones and his son, Stephen, typically operate with a "deadlines make deals" mindset and wait until the last minute to fully commit to their stars. That leads to Dallas having to pay top-of-the-market rates for their guys because their waiting hands negotiating leverage over to their players. 

Stephen Jones did indicate at new head coach Brian Schottenheimer's introductory press conference that the Cowboys front office would be open to evaluating a change in how it handled free agency and contract management. However, that may have been lip service with Jerry Jones saying at the NFL Honors award show last week that their 2025 free agency approach would "be in line" with past years. If Dallas wants to end its nearly 30-year Super Bowl drought, then being more proactive with its top players' contracts would be a great way to do that and avoid the type of drama their All-Pro wide receiver is tired of the team going through.