FRISCO, Texas — You can put your finger in your ear and spin it around to make sure you're hearing this correctly but, make no mistake about it, it certainly sounds as if the Dallas Cowboys' front office is willing to begin taking cues from some of their most successful rivals in the realm of approaching free agency in 2025; and that would be music to Micah Parsons.
Having already made it known his looming contract extension will be absent any sort of demand or edict that he be awarded every possible red cent, for the sake of allowing cap space to be more active in free agency this year and beyond, the record-setting pass rusher doubled down on that stance recently.
Speaking after a morning of creating smiles and making dreams come true for Make-A-Wish kids at the Great Wolf Lounge in Grapevine on Valentine's Day eve, Parsons was asked what the Eagles' latest championship win felt like as a player for their biggest enemy.
"Yeah, that makes me hurt, man," the four-time Pro Bowler told DallasCowboys.com. "This is a [Cowboys] team that, over the past couple years, we kind of got our wins and losses against them, and battled with them. Obviously, talent is here, but we've just got to finish; and go be aggressive the same way they did, you know?
"I don't wanna sit back and just watch other people build and build and build and I [we] stay the same, so we definitely need some call to action."
What exactly does that look like to Parsons, though?
No worries, because he answered that question as well, and candidly.
"I want to see us be aggressive, and I wanna see us get players that's gonna help us — that's gonna come in and make an impact," he said of his ideal approach to free agency. "And I wanna see us bring back our own players that are just as important, and let's see what we can do there. There's been a new wave in the NFL. You saw it with the Rams, and [even though they] drafted some of those guys, you always can't hit like that — you know what I mean? The 49ers went and got Javon Hargrave, and they went and got some impactful players on their side. …
"There is some success to it. You look at Philly and how they went and got Saquon [Barkley] and how they went and Zack [Baun]. Everyone doesn't need a max deal. There are great quality players that can do one-year or two-year deals, obviously we've seen that this year. There's been a trend."
A key note to consider is that extending Parsons' contract this year would award the Cowboys with roughly $18 million in added salary cap space to operate this spring.
A super aggressive approach to [outside] free agency not been one the Cowboys often subscribe to, particularly the previous offseason, when they were mostly inactive in adding outside free agents in the first several waves of open market shopping. At the end of the 7-10 season, owner and general manager Jerry Jones openly confessed he and the Cowboys could have done things differently in that capacity.
That sentiment was echoed by vice president of player personnel Stephen Jones when speaking to that question during the inaugural press conference of newly-named head coach Brian Schottenheimer.
It won't be long before it's determined if the Cowboys are truly turning the corner with said approach, legal tampering set to begin on March 10, but there is no question which side of that track Parsons is on.
"We've just gotta find the right guys to come in and that's willing to make an impact, and that wanna play hard."
There's no pride emanating from the Lion as contract talks begin, largely because he's desperately hoping to strengthen the Pride around him.
