Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons is hugely valuable as a player and is arguably one of the best in his position currently in the NFL, and yet the team could be letting him slip away.
Until Friday morning, the Cowboys had yet to reach an agreement to sign Parsons to a contract extension, and it appears it is all the fault of the franchise’s owner and general manager, Jerry Jones, according to Sports Illustrated.
During the NFL owners’ meeting, Jones revealed that he had tried to negotiate directly with Parsons, rather than through his agent, David Mulugheta, whom Jones belittled in front of everyone: “The agent is not a problem here. I don’t know his name”.
A personal vendetta against Jones and the Cowboys
Now, a source from the NFL and the Cowboys believes that Jones’ actions could end up causing them to not only lose negotiations with their superstar, but also that Mulugheta holds a personal grudge against him and his team.
“The more people that are involved, the harder it is to get a deal done, right? It’s easier if it’s just one person… And there’s some truth to that, but don’t you dare say it,” NFL expert analyst Albert Breer said on his podcast The Breer Report.
“And then to say you don’t even know the agent’s name? If he’s not the most prominent agent in the NFL right now, he’s in the top three, David Mulugheta, and it’s totally unnecessary,” he added.”Micah probably never accepted a discount, especially since they waited another year, but now you’ve made it a matter of pride.”
But making one of the NFL’s most powerful agents angry was not Jones’ only mistake, as according to Breer, by waiting until now to close the deal with Parsons, Dallas also lost a big advantage in terms of the money they could have saved by doing so last offseason, and will now be forced to spend a much higher annual average to retain their linebacker and one of the leaders of the defense.
Micah Parsons’ defense of his agent
After Jones’ words, the linebacker reacted and posted the following message through his social networks:
David is the best and I won’t close any deal without @DavidMulugheta’s involvement. Like anyone with common sense, I hired experts for a reason. There is no one I trust more than David when it comes to negotiating contracts! There will be no backdoors in this negotiation.
“The advantage you have in signing someone you drafted and developed is that if it’s a first-round pick, you give up in two years,” Breer explained. “With Michael Parsons, if you do it last year, you give up in two years of existing contract, which reduces the annual average, so by not doing it soon, you’re basically giving up the right to have that advantage.”
For now, the fans have been left wondering why they have not been able to renegotiate with one of the team’s best defenders in recent years, and the only person they can blame is their owner.
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