Stephen Jones Drops Cryptic Remark on Micah Parsons’ Contract: What Does "Want to Be Paid" Really Mean?

The comment underscores my prediction that, before Week 1, they’ll offer him something significantly less than they would have offered if he had held out. He’ll then have to decide whether to take it now, or to try to get more later.

When it comes to the Cowboys and their approach to paying top-tier talent, well, it’s like watching a master class in procrastination disguised as negotiation. Take linebacker Micah Parsons, for example—fans are roaring for him to get his due, yet here we are again, caught in the same old dance . Stephen Jones’s recent remark, “We want to pay Micah too. He’s got to want to be paid,” rings loud and clear, as if that’s the stickiest negotiation tactic in the book. Of course, Parsons wants to get paid; who wouldn’t? But Jones’s words hint at an age-old Dallas strategy: lowball offers early on, drag the process out, and hope the player takes the bait before the season kicks off. If not, we’re probably looking at a franchise tag scenario, where the Cowboys delay the inevitable—paying a hefty sum down the line but only after squeezing two seasons of exceptional talent out at a bargain basement price. Crafty, some might say. Calculated, absolutely. And if you ask me, that’s a gamble Dallas is willing to take time and again. LEARN MOREAmid training-camp chants from fans to pay linebacker Micah Parsons, Cowboys executive Stephen Jones said this, via Clarence E. Hill, Jr. of All City DLLS, “We want to pay Micah too. He’s got to want to be paid.”The hidden, and perhaps unintended, genius in the approach is this. Before they break the pay, they will have gotten two seasons out of him at a total of million. Which is, given Parsons’s skills and abilities, one hell of a bargain for the Cowboys.If he doesn’t, the Cowboys will happily pay him million this year and kick the can to next year, when they’d likely apply the exclusive franchise tag and once again drag their feet until they have painted themselves squarely into a corner, forcing themselves to pay more than they would have paid if they’d done it sooner.Obviously, he wants to be paid. Jones is saying that, at some point, he needs to accept our offer.

The Cowboys are way better at coming up with reasons for not timely and properly paying their key players than they are at timely and properly paying their key players.