It sounds preposterous, I get it. But that isn’t going to stop me from saying it.
The Dallas Cowboys should look at what the New York Jets are doing and try to be more like them.
Consider that the Jets are often associated with dysfunction, chaos and overall ineptitude. One could argue how they have been in a conference championship game more recently than the Cowboys, but I think that the point (at least in a general sense) is understood.
The Jets have had a busy week as training camps get set to kick off across the NFL and that business was related to their front office. On Monday the team locked down wide receiver Garrett Wilson to a four-year extension and on Tuesday they followed suit with cornerback Sauce Gardner.
Jets extensions:
Sauce Gardner: 4-years, $120.4M
Garrett Wilson: 4-years, $130M
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 15, 2025
In case you were unaware, Gardner and Wilson were both first-round picks in the 2022 NFL Draft. This would suggests on some level that the Cowboys are already behind on getting an extension done with their own first-round pick from that year in Tyler Smith and obviously we have discussed how they should look to do so immediately.
If the Cowboys are “behind” on Tyler Smith then they have arguably been lapped with Micah Parsons as he was taken in the first round a full year before Gardner, Wilson and Smith. The extensions for the two Jets stars were regarded as “six-year deals” in an overall sense which is obviously true because they each have two years remaining on their rookie contracts (counting the fifth-year option seasons). The Cowboys have already burned one of those years relative to Parsons.
Not that any of us are following the Jets with high levels of intensity, but think about how there was not a real peep of any pending extensions for either player that they took care of. Obviously it made sense given who they are and where they are at in their careers. But ultimately the Jets moved in silence and got deals done that will benefit all parties involved. No one is actually saying that brokering these types of deals is “easy”, but when you are committed to doing this and operating in the most efficient manner possible from a team-building standpoint the motivation is there and things get done.
The Cowboys are obviously behind on Parsons and Smith (to a lesser degree on the latter) and arguably so with players like DaRon Bland, Brandon Aubrey and George Pickens. There are different arguments to be made in each of those cases but once again the point stands that letting them pile up repeatedly keeps you in a cycle of trying to catch your footing instead of standing on solid ground.
As conversation about the two Jets players was swirling through the internet on Tuesday I thought Joe Hoyt of The Dallas Morning News raised an interesting point. He noted that what is particularly strange is that the Cowboys have essentially declared this inevitable. They are going to make Micah the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL... at some point.
and the funny thing from a Cowboys perspective: there isn’t really doubt about these deals getting done. It’s a matter of when, not if.
For example: as we know, sources have indicated the Cowboys are willing to make Micah Parsons the highest paid non-QB in the NFL. But when? https://t.co/CK6cjShil6
— Joseph Hoyt (@JoeJHoyt) July 15, 2025
Even understanding that the front office is willing to write a blank check to Micah (so to speak) wouldn’t they want that check to be the lowest value possible? Wouldn’t it make sense and be prudent to get it done - even at a record-setting level - when the value is the lowest?
It is these types of questions that force us to consider that the only “logical” play at hand isn’t really one of logic. The Cowboys are operating this way because they can and want to and that’s that. End of story.
Sometimes things just operate without logic. This, and the many contract endeavors before it, are proof.