'Jerry will pay you': Why Micah Parsons' teammates, both current and former, believe star will get his money

FRISCO, Texas -- Only 10 days remain between Monday and the Dallas Cowboys kicking off the 2025 NFL season in Philadelphia at the Super Bowl LIX champion Philadelphia Eagles. 

Yet, Cowboys All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons remains unsigned despite not participating at training camp and requesting a trade. As a result, he wasn't present during the media viewing portion of Dallas' practice on Monday. 

None of that phases three-time Pro Bowl quarterback Dak Prescott, a veteran of two prolonged, public contract negotiations with Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones. He's sticking to his stance from the last day of mandatory minicamp on June 12 when he guaranteed Parsons' situation would be worked out. 

"I've got confidence (he'll be on the field in Week 1). I've told y'all that back when, and I'm just going off experience, honestly," Prescott said. "So I've got confidence in that, just hoping -- which I know he is -- he's ready to play."

Cowboys Pro Bowl cornerback Trevon Diggs, Parsons' BFF in Dallas, remains uncertain about when the 26-year-old will rejoin the team on the field. 

"I don't know, I'm not him. At the end of the day, I just hope we get everything worked out, everything situated," Diggs said. "All the guys miss him. Everybody wants him out there, so I just hope everything gets handled so we can just go out there and win."  

Parsons is certainly needed in order for the Cowboys to get back to their winning way from 2021 to 2023 when the team won 12 games in three consecutive seasons for the first time since the 1990s dynasty days. Dallas' defensive expected points added (EPA) per play when Parsons is on the field is the best in the NFL since he was drafted in 2021. When he is off the field in that same span, Dallas has the league's worst EPA per play, per CBS Sports Research.   

 In the end, Diggs firmly believes Parsons' end goal, for both personal and professional reasons, is to remain with the Cowboys long-term despite asking out of Dallas on social media on Aug 1. 

"Most definitely," Diggs said Monday when asked if he thinks Parsons still wants to be a Cowboy. "I've heard him say before he plays the game for us. We go out there blood, sweat and tears. We work out together, train together. It's really him being with us at the end of the day. I know for sure he wants to be out there with us and just help his team win. This is home, like this is his family. So why wouldn't he want to be here?"

Many other NFL teams would view Parsons vs. Jones as a "distraction." It's something teams around the league despise, but in Dallas, it's business as usual. In 2023, All-Pro right guard Zack Martin held out of the start of training camp before re-signing on a two-year, $36.8 million restructured contract on Aug. 14 of that year. Last year, All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb held out of training camp and eventually re-signed on a four-year, $136 million on Aug. 26. Prescott himself re-signed hours before kickoff in Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns last year. When this is all you know, this type of negotiation process is your normal. 

"I wouldn't say so," Prescott said when asked if the Parsons situation is a distraction. "As I alluded to it before, there's been a case of something similar to this the last three years I believe. Not necessarily, I think people can take it however they want. I think it's kind of part of the way guys think and see things around here."

That's certainly the perspective of former Cowboys four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence's. Lawrence, who signed a three-year, $32.5 million contract with the Seattle Seahawks in March, just got used to Jones' public, media-involved approach to negotiating high-profile contracts for star players. 

"That's a shaky situation man. You have an owner on one hand that's basically asking him to go prove it and play another year. But, you've got a young star on the other hand that's like, 'I already proved enough to you. You've got to pay me my money,'" Lawrence said on "The Pivot" podcast on Sunday. "It's really hard to speak on it because with my situation, Jerry franchise-tagged me the first time. ... It [Jones' way of publicly doing business] might be weird to everybody else, but coming from Dallas and being in Dallas my whole career, that's all I knew. ... You handle your business and stuff, Jerry will pay you."

Lawrence used to be a signature locker room leader in Dallas, leading team huddles on Cowboys gamedays and more. Now, Prescott is THE Cowboys locker room leader and longest-tenured player, and despite typically looking to block out outside noise, he agreed with Lawrence's take about these intensely public negotiations.

"I don't always hear a lot, but I actually did hear DeMarcus Lawrence talk about it, and I think he hit it on the head. Like when you're here in this organization, this is just how you see things are done," Prescott said. "Whether they're right, wrong, or whoever has their view about him [Jones], but I think that does help us allow us to just stay focused on our jobs. Understanding that us putting energy toward any of that doesn't help."

Parsons' energy is certainly missed out at Cowboys practice, just as Prescott said it was "definitely evident" how much Lamb missed being around his teammates at training camp during his holdout last year. Like Lamb, Parsons has done what he's needed to do in his teammates' eyes. No amount of laying on a training table during a preseason game bothers anybody in the locker room.

"I think Micah, as I said, is doing a great job of being here, being present, being around the guys," Prescott said. "I'm not here to judge body language. Yeah, I don't think Micah has probably ever been the guy we want to watch his body language and do what he does. Let Micah go make plays, and that's what he does. Yeah, I'm not reading into the (body) language."

The reason they're not reading into his body language is because of what they do see Parsons doing on his own time: lifting, working out, hitting the sauna and getting another workout in all as a regular part of the 26-year-old edge rusher's daily routine. Like Jones, Parsons is moving around like it's business as usual. Ten days from now in Philadelphia will reveal how business as usual things truly are with Parsons and the Cowboys. 

"He actually works out all the time, even when we were in training camp," Diggs said. "Wake up early in the morning, lift weights, get in the sauna with him. He goes home, and he works out. He does everything that he can, just about everything he can instead of being on the field. I know that he's working. He wants to get out there bad. I know what type of person he is. I know what type of hard worker he is, so I just know he wants to be out there."