OXNARD, Calif. (AP) — Given that the Dallas Cowboys have gone 29 seasons since appearing in an NFC championship game — the longest drought in the conference — owner Jerry Jones has found himself occasionally considering whether to step down as general manager.
“Yes, momentary,” Jones said Monday. “Small fractions of seconds, I promise you.”
With his player personnel duties seemingly not changing anytime soon, Jones remains focused on how to get the Cowboys back to the Super Bowl. That seems unlikely
to happen anytime soon without a happy, healthy and productive Micah Parsons in the fold, and the star defender’s contract dispute was primary topic of discussion Monday before the start of training camp.
“There’s nothing new about what we’re talking about here today relative to contracts. That’s been going on a long time now,” Jones said.
“If you say, well, if you don’t get him in you’re going to lose the first two games, then go on to win the Super Bowl, well, we’ll take that,” he continued, referencing running back Emmitt Smith’s 1993 holdout.
There were no updates on Parsons’ on-field status from Jones, executive vice president of personnel Stephen Jones or new coach Brian Schottenheimer ahead of the team’s annual, nearly monthlong stop in Ventura County. It's the second straight offseason where financial dealings with standout players risk overshadowing the Cowboys' football preparations.
Quarterback Dak Prescott participated in training camp last year before getting a new contract before the start of the season that made him the NFL's highest-paid player. Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb held out of camp before receiving a new $136 million, four-year contract with $100 million guaranteed last August. Those protracted dealings came ahead of a 7-10 season that marked the end of Mike McCarthy’s five-year run as coach.
Parsons had 12 sacks and 12 tackles for loss in 13 games, the lowest tallies of his four seasons in Dallas in each category. The 26-year-old defensive end is at camp, something the elder Jones appreciates, but it isn’t clear if Parsons will participate in the first practice on Tuesday. He is going into the fifth and final year of his rookie contract, and the Cowboys would be able to able to apply the franchise tag in 2026.
Jones said he had not negotiated directly with Parsons' agent, David Mulugheta, though Stephen Jones later clarified that he is typically the one who might handles such discussions.
“Obviously, we don’t have a deal with Micah, and we have work to do. That’s the only thing I would comment on,” Stephen Jones said when asked what was holding up a potential deal that will almost certainty make Parsons the league's highest-paid defender.
Jerry Jones doesn’t believe a likely Parsons hold-in would impact the team’s development during camp, which runs through Aug. 14.
“I’m not concerned at all about what our team can be this year, and develop and develop into, and what we make of our training camp,” Jones said. “I’m not at all concerned about a contract that involves and will affect that in any way, I can’t emphasize that enough.”
The ever-loquacious Jones alternated between praising Parsons’ business acumen and pointing out he dealt with an injury for the first time in his career, missing four games because of a high ankle sprain, during a typically freewheeling hourlong news conference.
The 82-year-old Jones said he still enjoys making player personnel decisions, even against the backdrop of constant criticism as the Cowboys have won five playoff games in the past 29 seasons.
“I like it this way, and if you watch this (upcoming documentary on) Netflix, you’ll see I gave every frigging thing in my life and then exposed probably two or three times that to get to sit up here,” Jones said.
“Listen, listen, I haven’t worked in 35 years,” Jones added later. “I’ve had the damnedest run and the most fun that you could ever imagine.”
That includes a memorable recent cameo in the streaming series “Landman.” Appearing as himself opposite actors Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Hamm to deliver a monologue about the importance of including family in his business pursuits, Jones joked the filmmakers cut the best take of an off-color joke he tells during a hospital room conversation with Hamm’s stricken oil baron.
“They took that out, and I thought it was the best scene in the whole thing,” Jones said.
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