How the Myles Garrett extension impacts Dallas Cowboys, Micah Parsons

The Myles Garrett contract will clearly have an impact on the Dallas Cowboys and Micah Parsons.

The leaves are officially falling. On Sunday morning we got news that the Cleveland Browns agreed to a contract extension with star pass rusher Myles Garrett. There is over $123M guaranteed on the deal and it averages $40M per season. He is the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league now.

The verbiage about being the “highest-paid non-quarterback in the league” might sound familiar to you. This is the case because it was thrown out about the deal that the Las Vegas Raiders gave to Maxx Crosby… four days ago.

Put simply, this is the way the game is played. If you have demonstrated that you are one of the elite players at a certain position, a high-paying one like pass rusher, then when it is your turn to get paid you get the moniker assigned to you.

That feels important for the Dallas Cowboys right now.

Here is how the Myles Garrett deal impacts the Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys were first able to negotiate an extension with Micah Parsons last offseason. That would have been the ideal time to get it done. At that moment in time, the pass rusher market was much more calm than it has gotten this past week. San Francisco’s Nick Bosa led the group with an AAV of $34M. That has now been outdone twice in the span of a few days as noted.

Obviously the Cowboys were preoccupied with tending to deals for CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott that came in late last offseason. They could have made an effort to get all three done, maybe they did, but waiting on those cost them, and waiting here has done so as well.

Parsons has been on record several times lately in saying that he would take less from the Cowboys in the name of another potential goal. He recently said he would if Dallas were able to acquire Myles Garrett (this was when Garrett made a trade request, the one that obviously led to this deal) but that is now impossible.

Back in December, Parsons said specifically that he did not need $40M per year. These are all interesting comments and may have been genuine from him, but Parsons has representation who may push for the maximum. $40M per year from a pass rusher or non-quarterback standpoint was merely a hypothetical when Parsons offered it. Now it is literally the market price.

The best assumption in our new world is that Parsons is going to clear the deal that Garrett just got and probably by a comfortable margin. Given that he is at the moment set to enter the final year of his rookie contract, obviously a franchise tag in 2026 and even beyond is possible, it also stands to reason that it will happen before the season begins.

Will that be soon? Will it come during the summer? Are we looking at another situation akin to Lamb and/or Prescott? Time will tell. The Cowboys did clear about $55M in salary cap space this past week. Maybe it was for this. Maybe it is for something else.