The Dallas Cowboys are finishing off a lost season, one marred by injury and poor play. Nevertheless, head coach Mike McCarthy has motivated his guys enough to play hard down the stretch even with the postseason a long shot, a trend that continued on Sunday. Dallas went to Carolina and took down the Panthers, 30-14, to advance to 6-8 on the year.
Micah Parsons played a big role in the win, living in the Panthers' backfield all day en route to a two-sack performance. Afterwards he took the time to address a report from NFL Network's Ian Rapoport that the Cowboys haven't "ruled out" trading him this offseason instead of signing him to a massive contract extension.
"I understand how that business side goes," Parsons said, per Jon Machota of The Athletic. "There are no hard feelings in this business, whether I'm here or anywhere else. Obviously I've stated that I want to be here. But at the end of the day, I understand the business side. I've put in a lot of work, I've played hard too, so obviously if sides can't agree to those type of things, it happens like that. But I'm just happy to be here. I'm just gonna keep playing hard while I'm here. If I'm here for the next 5-6 years, I'm gonna keep playing hard then too. Ain't nothing really gonna make a difference, Micah is gonna play hard."
Earlier this week, team vice president Stephen Jones said the Cowboys would be re-evaluating their strategy of handing out massive deals to star players after paying Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb this year. However, in the same breath, he said he "can't imagine" a scenario where Parsons doesn't play for the Cowboys for the foreseeable future. So while he did not outright say Dallas won't be trading its superstar defender, it is very, very unlikely.
Parsons is up for a contract extension this offseason with 2025 looming as the final season on his rookie deal. How the Cowboys go about their business on that front will be very telling.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Micah Parsons Addresses Report About Cowboys Being Open to Trading Him.
