Being in the position that the Dallas Cowboys currently find themselves is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, having three building-block players — Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Micah Parsons — who are all coming off of All-Pro seasons and all worthy of and expecting big money contracts in the near future is an indication that your team-building techniques have been successful. However, the opposite edge of that sword is that this puts the Dallas Cowboys in a tough financial situation. How do you pay all three of these players, when do you pay them, and where from the rest of your roster will you be skimming from in order to keep this core together.
However, Micah Parsons, CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott aren't the only three Cowboys coming off of All-Pro seasons. Zack Martin and Tyron Smith, fixtures along the Cowboys offensive line for the past decade, were selected as All-Pro's for the 9th and 5th times in their careers respectively, and second-year guard Tyler Smith earned his first All-Pro nod as well. None of these guys, or the rest of the 47 players who will be on the Cowboys active roster at the start of the season, will be playing for free. It's inevitable… tough financial times lie ahead.
Ultimately, this is a decision that the Dallas Cowboys front office will need to handle. After all, it's Jerry Jones who will be cutting the checks, and since he took over the team in 1989, it's been Jerry Jones who has been making these football-related decisions. But that doesn't mean that everyone affiliated with the Dallas Cowboys will simply keep their mouths shut and allow Jones to make these tough choices without feedback. Take for example, Cowboys safety Malik Hooker, who on a recent episode of All Facts No Brakes shared with host Keyshawn Johnson his pecking order of who should be paid in Big D.
“Micah still has a lot to prove,” Malik Hooker told Keyshawn Johnson. “He's a fantastic player, but I feel like Micah still has a surface that he doesn't even know that he can scratch as far as what he's doing. So I would say Micah is last just for that reasoning. I'll probably say Zack Martin would be after Micah for the simple fact of like Zack, you know what he's done in the league, and you know he is who he is. Like you know he's gonna be there. I would probably say CeeDee first let me just go there, I'll probably say CeeDee. I got high praise for Dak too, but I say, yeah I say CeeDee, I’ll put probably Dak second, I’ll put Zack and then Micah. Micah got to wait man, he’s still young dawg.”
Micah Parsons is the youngest and least experienced player of those four that Malik Hooker mentioned, but you could make the case that, relative to their peers around the NFL, Parsons may be the best of those four Dallas Cowboys. Not that the NFL Top 100 is the be-all and end-all of player evaluations, but it's worth noting that Parsons was ranked 9th on the 2023 list, while CeeDee Lamb, Dak Prescott and Zack Martin were ranked 34th, 56th and 68th respectively. For their performances during the 2023 season, Pro Football Focus has Parsons ranked 3rd on their PFF 101 list, once again ahead of CeeDee Lamb (9th), Dak Prescott (14th), and Zack Martin (unranked).
Contentiousness for the Cowboys defense
Given what Malik Hooker had to say about Micah Parsons' future pay day, it would be understandable if Parsons had a bone to pick with his teammate. However, it wasn't anything that Hooker said about Parsons' contract status that upset the 25-year-old edge rusher. It was Hooker's comments about Parsons' podcast that elicited a response.
“My advice for Micah would be just make sure we’re all right,” Hooker said on Keyshawn Johnson’s podcast. “Because if we’re at work and and the run game’s terrible, but you’re doing a podcast every week and you know the run game is terrible, then what are you really caring about? Are you caring about the crowd that was watching the podcast or are you caring about the success of our team and the Super Bowl that we’re trying to reach?”
Parsons took to social media to respond, though he has since deleted the post. But per the Dallas Morning News, this is what Parsons had to say:
“Just wish you said this to me but instead on some podcast! And you got my number family! @MalikHooker24 and you my locker mate! So you coulda said this any day! And you do realize I shoot the podcast on our off day! Why ain’t we talking about everyone preparations and focus.”
The Dallas Cowboys haven't advanced beyond the Divisional Round of the Playoffs since 1996, when they made their last run to the Super Bowl. The last thing they need to be dealing with is petty beefs started on podcasts.
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