This isn’t just about Micah Parsons - It’s the Jerry Jones playbook
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is in a standoff with yet another star player as he waits to sign edge rusher Micah Parsons.
The ongoing Micah Parsons contract standoff is just the latest chapter in a long history of high-profile Cowboys holdouts - a pattern that traces directly back to owner Jerry Jones.
CeeDee Lamb kept it simple after Micah Parsons requested a trade from the Cowboys. pic.twitter.com/dhKRJ0CL6R
— ESPN (@espn) August 1, 2025
For decades, Jones has turned contract drama into a feature, not a bug, of his team’s identity. From Emmitt Smith in 1993 to CeeDee Lamb in 2024, nearly every Cowboys star has had a public, drawn-out negotiation, and that’s no accident.
According to CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin, this spectacle is part of Jones’ brand strategy. The Cowboys haven’t appeared in a conference championship since 1995, yet remain one of the most talked-about franchises in all of sports, thanks largely to Jones’ flair for headlines and calculated chaos.
As Benjamin argues, Jones doesn’t just run a football team - he runs a billion-dollar entertainment empire, where drama fuels engagement, media exposure, and brand power. So while the Parsons drama may seem like a crisis, it’s exactly the kind of attention Jones has always courted - and arguably mastered.
Cowboys contract disputes throughout the Jones era
You’ll notice that each one has ended in a long-term extension for the player in question. Jones likes to remind us that Emmitt Smith’s holdout occurred in a year in which he skipped two regular-season games, and yet they won a Super Bowl that year. He seems to forget that Smith had several star players surrounding him that year as well. Oh, and that it was nearly 30 years ago, but I digress.
Here is a list of the contract standoffs in the Jones era.
| Season | Player | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Micah Parsons (LB) | TBD |
| 2024 | CeeDee Lamb (WR) | Signed long-term extension in late August after training camp ended |
| 2023 | Zack Martin (G) | Signed restructured contract in mid-August during training camp |
| 2020-2021 | Dak Prescott (QB) | Signed multi-year extension after a second franchise tag in March 2021 |
| 2019 | Ezekiel Elliott (RB) | Signed long-term extension in early September just before the regular season and became the highest-paid running back in the NFL at the time |
| 2019 | DeMarcus Lawrence (DE) | Signed long-term extension in April |
| 2015 | Dez Bryant (WR) | Signed long-term extension in mid-July during training camp |
| 1993 | Emmitt Smith (RB) | Signed long-term extension in mid-September, after regular season had already begun |
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