Micah Parsons shows up for Cowboys’ voluntary workouts despite lack of contract extension

Micah Parsons is in the building. The Cowboys‘ star edge rusher reported to the facility for voluntary offseason workouts, despite the fact that he has yet to be signed to the presumably-lavish contract extension that the Cowboys will hand him at some point. The Cowboys released a video on social media of players reporting that included a shot of Parsons.

Parsons had spent the voluntary-workout portion of the offseason training on his own the last two years, as noted by ESPN. 

Parsons is headed into the fifth-year option season on his rookie contract and is currently set to draw a fully-guaranteed base salary of $24 million and count for the same amount against the salary cap. The four-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro has finished in the top three of Defensive Player of the Year voting in every season where he’s been healthy, and is considered one of the very small handful of best defensive players in the league, and he is expected to become the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL whenever he signs his new deal. 

The price for “highest-paid non-quarterback” has already gone up several million dollars this offseason, with Myles Garrett and Ja’Marr Chase blowing past the previous benchmarks set by players like Justin Jefferson and Nick Bosa. Parsons has been extension-eligible since last offseason, but the Cowboys in recent years have typically waited to extend their best players at the top of the market, costing themselves millions in the process. That’s what happened with both Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, and it’s now happened with Parsons as well.

It took a training-camp holdout for Lamb to finally get his deal last offseason, and it remains to be seen whether the same will be the case for Parsons. His showing up to voluntary workouts already makes this situation different from Lamb’s a year ago, though that could have at least something to do with the change in the defensive coaching staff, whereas Lamb was going into Year 4 in Mike McCarthy’s offense. 

Still, the Cowboys would obviously rather have Parsons at workouts than have to deal with another holdout, so this is an encouraging sign for them as they begin their offseason program. Now, they just have to actually get one of the best players in football to put pen to paper so he can be around for the long term.