Micah Parsons recently shared that he had an informal chat about his contract with Jerry Jones in the spring. After the discussion, the edge rusher told the owner/GM to hammer out the details with his agent before he put pen to paper. It was a completely reasonable request, but according to Ryan Clark, that’s when things started to go sideways between the two parties.
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As weird as it may sound, Jones seemingly took the personal meeting as Parsons‘ final word. Jones didn’t even talk with the linebacker’s representative, David Mulugheta. In fact, Mulugheta called the team, but the front office did not answer. It’s easy to surmise that Jones was offended when Parsons didn’t sign the deal during their earlier conversation.
Clark believes Jones approached that spring meeting as if he were talking to a friend, forgetting that in the NFL, there are no true friendships between ownership and labor.
“Jerry Jones has taken this personally. He’s treated their conversation in the Spring as if it were a conversation amongst friends. There is no friendship in ownership and labor; that’s not the way it works. The balance of power doesn’t allow that,” Clark professed on Get Up.
It’s quite a true statement every company head should remember. It’s possible and even desirable to have a good working relationship with one’s boss. But at the end of the day, they’re still the boss, and you’re the employee. One is focused on profit maximization, while the other is focused on fair compensation and job security. It’s hard to blur those lines.
Jerry Jones is handling Micah Parsons’ contract negotiations like his friend betrayed him. There’s an imbalance of power that makes a friendship an impossibility.
Jerry had a closed door conversation with Micah, and no officially offer sheet sent over. Now, Jerry has taken this… pic.twitter.com/YhlTZuott9
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) August 4, 2025
Furthermore, Clark believes that Jones doesn’t have a social filter, like many old people. So, he took the story public when he probably shouldn’t have.
“What’s happened publicly is, Jerry Jones, as we all do when we get older, we lose the social filter that tells us, ‘This is something that we shouldn’t talk about publicly.’ And so now, you’ve alienated your best player,” Clark said.
Now, Parsons has officially requested a trade from the Dallas Cowboys via X (formerly Twitter). It’s been a masterclass of missteps, and Jones has shown us the blueprint of exactly how not to treat a star player during contract negotiations. But don’t lose sleep, Dallas fans, because Jones assures that it’s just all a part of the process.
Reminder, this is the most profitable franchise in all of sports. Yet they continue to treat money and contract negotiations like they’re a massive issue. It really shouldn’t be such a big deal for a team that generates so much profit. We understand they have to work around the NFL salary cap, but there’s plenty of money in the bank to extend Parsons.
Not to mention, the Cowboys could actually save money if they handled the negotiations correctly. They could’ve converted a portion of next year’s salary into a signing bonus and opened up millions in cap space to sign other players. But now, there’s no chance Parsons will want to sign something that’s team-friendly.
All in all, Jones and the Cowboys get an “F” grade for how they’ve handled this debacle. They’ve waited for Myles Garrett, TJ Watt, and soon-to-be Trey Hendrickson to reset the defensive end market with new contracts, even when Parsons reportedly wanted to negotiate for an extension last offseason. Meaning, Dallas could’ve gotten way out ahead of this.
Now, Parsons wants to be traded, and Jones is trying to figure out a way to put out the fire. You really can’t screw things up any more than that. This is what happens when personal emotions mix into decision-making in sports.
