When the Cowboys regularly dig up the spur when it comes to re-signing core players, the Raiders showed how it would be done.
According to sources who know the situation, Starpass Rush Max Crosby’s new contract came together very quickly in literally hours.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys spend far more time making excuses about their failure to find a way to turn words into actions.
“We’ll either wait until the end or wait for what you’ll call, and it’ll be criticized because it’s lined up in the first game,” owner Jerry Jones said Wednesday. “It just happens that way. I was one of the earliest people in some contracts in 35 years.”
It’s easy to make a bold and broad claim when things like facts are not included in the argument. The reality is that in recent years, the Cowboys have been waiting too long, with so many players trying to sign anyway. From Ezekiel Elliott in 2019 to Duck Prescott in 2021, from Ceedeelam in 2024, and Duck Prescott in 2024 (again), the Cowboys routinely choose to incompromise.
The same may come for linebacker Mika Parsons. Smart moves are what they inevitably do later now. Create more cap space and become more expensive as other transactions enter.
Already, Crosby has set up a new non-quarterly bar and set new money of $35.5 million a year. Other players, especially Edge Rush, can push it even higher. Whenever the Cowboys go round to slap details of Mika’s next deal, prices can be much higher than they do today.
If they want to do it today, they can. He is set to make $204 million this year, and is fully guaranteed. The five-year, $168 million contract generates an average of $36 million new money, with $33.6 million per year on actual payments.
Sign Mika $40 million. Adds a base salary of $117 million in 2025. In 2026, you will receive a fully guaranteed $35 million salary with the right to convert to a signature bonus. Salary in 2027 was $33 million, with guaranteed injuries and fully guaranteed in March 2026. This is a practical guarantee of $199.17 million.
We will put a non-guaranteed basic salary of $29.415 million in backend. That’s all.
3 hours? It may take 3 minutes. Nevertheless, the Cowboys seem happy it would take six months to do it.
