The Dallas Cowboys opened their 2025 mandatory minicamp Tuesday in Frisco, Texas, and four-time Pro Bowl linebacker Micah Parsons, the 2021 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, was there — even though he remains without a contract extension.
Parsons, however, told ESPN that he may sit out the Cowboys’ training camp that starts on July 25 in Oxnard, California, if the team fails to give him a new contract by then.
Parsons’ presence, and his ongoing contract dispute, overshadowed most everything else to come out of the Dallas minicamp on Tuesday, the first day of the three-day session. But with much less fanfare, there was another player locked in a contract impasse with the team, who took part in the minicamp.
One Last Cowboys Draft Pick Without a Contract
Cowboys’ second-round pick, highly-regarded former Boston College edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku, remains the last member of the Cowboys’ 2025 draft class without a signed contract. All eight other rookies drafted by Dallas have already signed on the dotted line.
The issue is not money. The value of rookie contracts is predetermined by draft slot under the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement.
According to the sports business site Spotrac, the 21-year-old from Williamstown, New Jersey, will receive a contract worth $10,144,808. With a signing bonus of $4,018,041, the four-year deal carries an average annual value of $2,536,202.
His paycheck is all very clear cut. So what’s the issue? Why hasn’t the 2024 first-team All-American finalized his deal with the Cowboys, especially when every other Dallas rookie has already done so?
The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday revealed the reason — and it is the same reason that no other second-round pick in the NFL has signed yet either.
Except for two.
Browns, Texans, Throw Second Round Into Chaos
“Of the 32 players picked in the second round, just two have signed: Cleveland linebacker Carson Schwesinger and Houston receiver Jayden Higgins. Both received fully guaranteed contracts. Higgins, picked second in the second round, was the first player selected in that round to sign a fully guaranteed contract in league history,” the Morning News reported.
“Agents of clients picked in the second round are seeking fully guaranteed contracts,” the paper’s report revealed. “Two people with knowledge of the contract confirmed to The Dallas Morning News that’s also the holdup with Ezeiruaku’s deal.”
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The Morning News report appeared to confirm speculation by Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk, who wrote, “other teams don’t want to follow the Browns’ and Texans’ lead and give fully guaranteed contracts to second-round picks. And agents are asking those teams, if other second-round picks are getting fully guaranteed contracts, why should my player take anything less?”
In other words, Cowboys fans blaming team owner and effective general manager Jerry Jones for the second-rounder’s contract issues should blame the Browns and Texans instead.
Should the team and its fan base be worried that last season’s Ted Hendricks Award winner as college football’s best defensive end will end up not playing for the Cowboys after all?
It doesn’t look that way. Especially because Ezeiruaku himself appears unworried.
“I’m here doing what I have to do here every single day. That’s between the organization and my agent,” Ezeiruaku told the Dallas paper. “I have full faith they’re going to get that done. When it’s ready, it’s going to be ready and I’ll sign that piece of paper. Other than that, until then, I’m doing what I have to do here.”
