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I Have No Doubt Micah Parsons and Terry McLaurin are Both Back With Their Teams for the Long Term (UPDATE x2!)
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
Interesting Thursday on Twitter as we had Terry McLaurin request a trade from the Commies and Micah Parsons tweet out what many presumed would be him playing out the last year of his deal before he tests free agency:
I’ll be honest, I don’t buy that either player is going anywhere. If you’re Adam Peters you’re not trading your best wide receiver after you just discovered you had a franchise QB. You’re in win-now mode. It would be malpractice to give Jayden Daniels a receiving corps where Deebo Samuel is WR1. Lets not forget this happens all the time. It’s all smoke and mirrors. Remember when Brandon Aiyuk requested a trade from the 49ers in the middle of a contact negotiation? Remember Tee Higgins? Both of those guys signed long-term deals.
Terry McLaurin requesting a trade is like Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy. Fresh start, no debts, no baggage:
The only problem is it’s easy to say it out loud. It’s another to actually follow through with it.
On the other hand, I predict Micah Parsons will probably get a deal in the middle of August on some random day Jerry Jones can own the headlines. CeeDee Lamb didn’t get a contract last year until August 26th and Dak Prescott didn’t get his extension until hours before their Week 1 game. I don’t think this is mind games, stubbornness, or genuine insanity. I think Jerry Jones just loves dominating the headlines during camp. So he’ll drag it out as long as he can, have everyone from the local and national media discussing it, and then he’ll end up paying his guy. It’ll strain his and the player’s relationship and won’t benefit the Cowboys’ on field success, but at least they remain the talk of the league and the NFL capitalizes.
UPDATE: Dianna Russini and Jon Machota published an article at The Athletic (with ads) after this was written that the relationship between Parsons and the Cowboys are so strained he might take drastic measures:
Parsons spoke directly with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones over multiple days in the spring. The team believed those conversations were negotiations and that it had a deal, multiple league sources said. But Parsons believed the talks were just conversations and wanted his agent to handle the negotiations. When Parsons’ agent attempted to start negotiations, the Cowboys declined to engage with him and told the pass rusher that they believed they already had a deal.
Now, the team is refusing to engage with Parsons’ agent at all, creating a tense standoff amid increasing friction.
That’s lip service in my opinion, but credit where credit is due. Jerry Jones can’t overpay if he doesn’t even negotiate. He’s playing chess while everyone is playing checkers.
UPDATE x2: Micah Parsons has requested a trade out of Dallas. Still don’t think this means anything at the end of the day and is only for leverage. The Cowboys have no intention of trading him obviously:
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com