Micah Parsons’ trade request last Friday sent quite a tremor through the NFL landscape. Players of his caliber—that young, that athletic, that productive—simply don’t become available. “Is this real?!”
Alas, for the other 31 NFL teams, it is not.
The timing and public nature of his statement make it a jarring headline. And yes, he did formally request a trade. But this isn’t the end of his Cowboys career.
The hard feelings, however, are real. Parsons is over the drama and mad about how Jerry Jones has treated him. And Jerry feels burned by how their March conversation unfolded. The trade request is just the latest move in a high-stakes game of chicken. One that has frayed the relationship between Jones and the Dallas Cowboys’ best player.
Micah Parsons Trade Request: What’s Real and What’s Not?
“Unfortunately, I No Longer Want To Be Here.”
It’s hard to believe this is where we are with the Parsons saga. From the start, cooler heads have been quick to tamp down any noise suggesting a deal wouldn’t get done, even though the whole thing made no sense.
Contentious negotiations between Jerry Jones and Cowboys players are a tale as old as time—or at least as old as Jones has owned the team.
But this one feels different. It feels personal. In all the years of Jerry’s ownership, no player of Parsons’ caliber has ever requested a trade from the Cowboys. That alone makes his request newsworthy.
The cracks appeared in March, when Parsons met with Jones for what he thought was a conversation about leadership. The discussion drifted to contract details, which Parsons admittedly indulged in.
From his perspective, these were informal talks meant to lay the foundation for a contract. From Jerry’s point of view, they now had a framework for a deal—one that excluded Parsons’ agent, David Mulugheta.
For a player about to sign the richest non-quarterback contract in NFL history, that was never realistic.
Mulugheta reached out to formalize the deal, only to be told by Adam Prasifka, the Cowboys’ Senior Director of Salary Cap and Player Contracts, that a deal was “pretty much already done.” Follow-ups to Stephen Jones went unanswered, and we already know Jerry doesn’t talk to agents.
To this point, the Dallas Cowboys have not had a single conversation with Parsons’ agent regarding his contract since March.
“I Don’t Place That With Any Real Seriousness.”
Predictably, the Parsons contract is all anyone at Cowboys training camp wants to talk about.
We haven’t heard from Parsons, even as he remains present in Oxnard. We have, however, heard from Jones.
Despite the visceral reaction from fans and media, he has made it clear that this is merely the next step in negotiations.
“That’s negotiation,” Jones said of Micah’s request. “I’ve heard that so many times in my 30 years in the NFL…but we’re under contract. We’re looking at adjusting the contract, but we’re under contract.”
Parsons remains so through 2025, and the Cowboys control his rights for two more years after this season via the franchise tag. They’re under no obligation to trade him, and Jones has made it clear he has no intention of doing that.
“This is a negotiation,” he said. “[A trade request] is just not a flare sign for me at all in any way.”
From his perspective, why would it be? Despite Micah’s visible frustrations, he still showed up to training camp. And even after his trade request last Friday, he remains in Oxnard with the team and is still present at practices.
By comparison, CeeDee Lamb, Zach Martin, and Ezekiel Elliott all held out during their own contract disputes.
To Jones, that doesn’t look like a guy who truly wants out of Dallas.
So, Are We Any Closer To A Deal Getting Done?
It doesn’t appear that way.
Jones continues to insist that he and Parsons had a deal back in March. The fact that it never materialized irks him.
“When I grew up, I knew when momma wouldn’t let me do something, going to daddy and daddy letting me do it. Then going back in and saying to momma, ‘Daddy said I could do it.’ That old momma/daddy stuff, we got here doing that by nature. We’re not going to do that again.”
Yes, that was his actual analogy.
In Jerry’s mind, a deal was done. And not just any deal, but a good one.
“What y’all don’t know is what I offered him,” Jones said. “And it’s a hell of a lot more than you think I did.” He even referred to “guaranteeing somebody almost $200 million.”
He also made it clear that the offer is now off the table.
“Micah took it off,” Jones said. “He took it off. That’s very important.”
So where does that leave things? Surely this will all get resolved and Micah will be on the field Week 1 against Philadelphia… Right?
“No, absolutely not,” Jones said when asked if he was confident a deal would get done by the season opener. “A big part of that is his decision. How would I know that?”
*Sigh*
Micah Parsons Will Suit Up for the Cowboys In 2025
Despite the ugliness, the most likely outcome of this saga is Parsons plays for the Cowboys this year. No team trades away a top-three defensive player in the league before he even reaches his prime.
And for Parsons, would he sit out games to prove a point? That seems unlikely, if for no other reason than he has to play for this year to count as an accrued season.
Still, the way this has played out is concerning.
Jones has always had thick skin—criticism from players and fans has always been met with a wink and a smile. “It’s just business,” Jerry would say. And it would conclude with a substantial contract for his top players.
But this one feels personal. Jerry believes Micah agreed to a deal and then reneged, and Micah is now telling everyone that Jerry is a snake.
Jerry isn’t taking it too kindly.
Most alarming, it still appears as if nobody is talking to each other. Parsons is no longer talking to Jerry. The Cowboys haven’t reached out to Parsons’ agent. And Parsons’ agent hasn’t reached out to the team. It’s all a contest to see who blinks first.
Regardless, Jones seems unbothered, and he thinks the fans should feel the same.
“Don’t lose any sleep over it,” he said. “That’s the one thing I would say to our fans: don’t lose any sleep.”
But the final words from Micah Parsons’ trade request make that difficult.
“I no longer want to play for the Dallas Cowboys.”
He’ll play for Dallas in 2025, and probably for many years after. But something in this relationship is broken, and no contract can fix that.
