It's a trap! Don't fall for the latest in the national media stirring up the fanbases emotions over the deterioration of the negotiations with a star player. They're further apart then they were months ago!
With all of the discussion being bandied about over the newest entry into the annual "Why haven't the Dallas Cowboys signed their star player yet?" conversation, it's time to reset the talking points a bit. This year, the player is edge rusher Micah Parsons.
Yes, it would be a joyous occasion for Cowboys Nation to be able to go through an offseason without this drama. This dance goes all the way back to Dez Bryant in 2015. There is a risk, albeit unknown in severity, that what happened with CeeDee Lamb's slow start to 2024 happens with Parsons, though edge rusher is less dependent on chemistry than wideouts needing to be in sync with the QB.
But there is a very clear and obvious reason the Jones family has adopted this strategy that goes above and beyond the natural fan reaction of "it ends up costing them more in the end."
Before things continue, please know this isn't a Jones Apology article. I believe their approach is highly detrimental to how good teams do business and build winners. I believe this, among many ways they run their team, ends up with three decades without making a championship game. But ledger wise, their approach is sound.
Let's set a baseline with known facts.
- The Dallas Cowboys' valuation is bulletproof at this point. They don't need to win to print money.
- The Jones family wants to win a Super Bowl.
- The Jones family wants to win a Super Bowl and also be able to say they did it their way.
- Yhe Jones family has generally retreated to copycatting trends a couple years after they've been established, after setting the NFL ablaze in the early 1990 with their savvy business moves, .
- The Jones family has moved past being mavericks and now are more interested in guarding their fiefdom.
- The Jones family cares more about that fiefdom than they do winning Super Bowls.
Those are the parameters that all things financial must be viewed when talking about the Dallas Cowboys' roster and signing players. And that is once again front and center as the next in a long-line of major contract negotiations plays out in the public's eye with Parsons.
Nick Bosa of the San Francisco 49ers signed for $88 million in guarantees in September of 2023. Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns signed for $88.8 million in March 2025. TJ Watt soared past those totals and signed for $108 million guaranteed in July 2025.
Watt has become the new baseline for guaranteed money in a deal, and one would have to imagine that if Parsons had been inked to an extension already, it would've been somewhere in the range of $88 million and $108 million in guarantees, and when he signs he's going to clear $108 million.
The most recent CBA, which has now been in effect for years, requires NFL teams to place all guaranteed money into an escrow account. In other words, teams have to be able to afford, in cash, the guaranteed portion of all contracts when they are signed. It's an assurance that a player will - even if the markets collapse and all things go haywire, they will be paid the money that's guaranteed. There's no "I ain't got it" about the guaranteed money in a deal.
But here's the kicker. NFL owners don't get to earn interest on that money once it's placed into the escrow account. As anyone with a mortgage, car note, or lopsidedly-distributed savings account knows, building wealth is primarily structured around using money to make money.
So, for the Joneses, the formula comes down to whether they are financially better off by waiting until the last minute to make a deal, earning interest on their money, or putting it into escrow.
So lets return to the examples from before. Say Parsons and his representative David Mulugheta said, way back in Summer 2024, they weren't signing for less than $98 million guaranteed.
The Cowboys look around and see that Garrett and Watt are more than likely going to sign before Parsons if they don't do a deal now, pushing up the guaranteed money floor from $88 million. Say they even correctly predict that one of them (Watt) is going to set the world on fire and get $108 million guaranteed.
If the Cowboys leave that $98 million in their investment portfolio for 15 months, from June 2024 through September 2025, they make enough money to pay Parsons $108 million of guaranteed money in September 2025 and still have some profit.
Here's the math.
In a diversified portfolio that pays 8% APY, that $98 million would turn into $112 million in those 15 months. Well performing? Add on another $3 million.
Throwing that $98 million into a hedge fund, where the risks are much higher but so are the returns? The Cowboys could turn that $98 million into $122 million with the right mix. So yes, strictly from a bottom line perspective, the Jones don't care about letting the market be set for them when it comes to their top-of-the-market talent, because their investment strategy likely makes them more money over the period of time.
And that's before they get to negotiate with the lower-tiered players by saying "there's just not that much pie left after we had to give [insert star player's name] so much, but you love being a Cowboy, right?"
