The pass rusher market saw a big-time deal drop on Wednesday which will certainly be relevant in Micah Parsons conversations.
The NFL pass rusher market saw a new name rise to the top on Wednesday, something that the Dallas Cowboys are going to have to pay serious attention relative to Micah Parsons.
It was reported that the Las Vegas Raiders were taking care of Maxx Crosby with a three-year deal worth $106.5M. From an AAV standpoint this puts Crosby at $35.5M per year and north of Nick Bosa’s AAV of $34M. Crosby is now the NFL’s highest-paid non-quarterback.
Las Vegas Raiders are signing Pro Bowl DE Maxx Crosby to a three-year, $106.5 million extension that includes $91.5 guaranteed, making him the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history, per sources.
For the third time in four years, the Raiders are addressing the contract of… pic.twitter.com/TKdIQdqqia
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 5, 2025
As noted, the Cowboys are likely paying attention to this as they are going to have to get a deal done with Micah Parsons sooner or later. It would stand to reason that sooner would the choice here, but Jerry Jones went on record on Wednesday after Zack Martin’s retirement press conference to say that sooner doesn’t have to be the case as far as free agency is concerned.
Still though, the Cowboys are acting a little bit differently in terms of action. Between Tuesday and Wednesday they cleared over $55M in salary cap space with restructures to the Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb deals, that has to theoretically be earmarked for something.
With Parsons it is still all a negotiation, and he likely has things that he wants from an extension with the team. Jerry also touched on that on Wednesday.
Jerry Jones speaking on what could prevent the Cowboys from getting a deal done with Micah Parsons ahead of free agency, as he’s pleaded for publicly in recent months:
“Those are a part of his cards. To talk about time and to be available for time, those are part of the cards to…
— Nick Harris (@NickHarrisFWST) March 5, 2025
It should be noted that a Parsons extension would also save the Cowboys salary cap space as they could convert his 2025 cap number to the league minimum and spread things out over the future. This is why we advocated for them to take care of Lamb and Prescott as soon as possible last year and even back in 2022.
For what it’s worth, the Crosby deal does not seem to be something that is going to move the Cowboys to act faster than they feel comfortable.
Can confirm the Cowboys have restructured Dak Prescott’s deal per team sources. As Micah Parsons told me this week, his agent is handling things with Cowboys but when I asked the team if there is a rush now to get a deal done in midst of Maxx Crosby contract I was told “not…
— Jane Slater (@SlaterNFL) March 5, 2025
The pass rusher market could still see some bumps as Myles Garrett and Trey Hendrickson lurk as other names to watch for new deals. It always stood to reason that Parsons was going to come in north of Bosa and probably even north of what Crosby just got, even if he is on record in saying he will take less for the Cowboys (his agent likely disagrees with that).
The obvious next step is to swallow the pill and get it done as soon as possible.
