Stephen Jones takes shot at Micah Parsons as contract saga continues with Cowboys

Dallas Cowboys executive Vice President Stephen Jones knows the fans want Micah Parsons to get paid and have a long term contract. But Jones and the Cowboys’ brass aren’t budging where they’re at in negotiations.

With fans yelling for Dallas to pay Parsons, Jones flipped it around. It looks like a regular game of catch, so the ball’s back in Parsons’ court at this point.

It’s not that Dallas doesn’t want its, arguably, best player on the team long term. But both sides have to come to some sort of understanding.

“It doesn’t change anything,” Jones said, via Jon Machota. “We want to pay Micah too. He’s gotta want to be paid.”

ESPN’s Adam Schefter believes the move from Parsons wound up being “counterproductive,” as we continue to wait. Schefter admitted it’s easy to see why Parsons thought the right thing was being done, making progress toward the extension being finalized.

“I think Micah, probably, in hindsight, looking at all of this and reviewing it all — Micah probably went further than he should have in a solo way, thinking he was doing a good thing,” Schefter said Wednesday via 105.3 The Fan. “Actually, it was probably counterproductive in the long term to getting a deal done.”

These conversations took place around the NFL Owners Meetings, which take place in the final days of March and early April. Had Parsons and owner Jerry Jones gone through with whatever they put together, this obviously would not be a major storyline during training camp. While Parsons was still out on the practice field on Tuesday, his name has dominated headlines when it comes to the Cowboys.

Sept. 4 might be a date to have circled. Dallas will head to Philadelphia for the season opener against the Eagles, a night when another Super Bowl banner will be unveiled. While nobody involved has set an official deadline to get something done, a good goal is usually when regular season games begin.

We saw that last season with both CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott. The Cowboys got Lamb’s contract done just before the end of training camp. Prescott was almost out of nowhere, as the news broke during pregame warmups on the first Sunday of the season.

At some point, an offer to Parsons will need to be made by Jones. But the current holdup might go back to his direct conversations with Parsons a few months ago.

Griffin McVeigh contributed to this report