Micah Parsons’ drama has rolled into the preseason finale. There are still questions surrounding the elite DE, who is caught up in a lengthy and complicated contract negotiation with Jerry Jones. Even with the regular season approaching, there hasn’t been much progress. As Jones recently explained, he is willing to make Parsons “the highest-paid guaranteed player other than a quarterback in the NFL.” But per the Cowboys‘ owner, the Pennsylvania native’s agent is coming in between the talks.

With negotiations dragging on this long, Rich Eisen believes the issue isn’t really about money but about how the deal went down. Jones’ reliance on a handshake agreement and the communication that followed only added to the mess. He also mentioned Parsons’ efforts to make softer moves, which include his gesture of removing everything on his social media that is related to the Cowboys to show his frustation. But things are yet to move. And the biggest question, as per Eisen, is, will Parsons actually be on the field for the game against the Eagles?

“Do you not get on the plane [to Philadelphia]? And that’s when things can particularly get off the rails. And the point is, why would we even get there? It’s so obvious that if you want to beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the night, ” Eisen said. He explained that if Parsons were to miss the regular-season game in this chaos, that is when things would take a turn for the Cowboys. Not just Eisen, many have raised the same question as to whether the Eagles will be able to beat the Eagles without Parsons, who is a crucial player on the defense side.

NFL writer Frank Schwab recently raised the same doubt, arguing that the Cowboys’ defense didn’t look strong in the absence of Parsons due to his injury. Betting analyst Ben Fawkes also pointed out how the oddsmakers are viewing the situation. The Cowboys’ win total is set at just 7.5 (lowest since 2003), and their Super Bowl odds have dropped to 50-1(weakest since 2014). Even though 60% of bettors are taking the over, Fawkes stressed that without Parsons on the field, the Cowboys lack depth.

“I think at the end of the day, we feel like Micah’s going to be out there when we line up against Philadelphia here in 15 days or whatever it is,” Brian Schottenheimer appeared confident that the player will show up for the season opener. However, Parsons has been missing out on the team drills. He showed his back issues as the reason, while he continued to show up for the team meetings. But without the drills, Parsons risks injury and other issues if he were to show up for the game against the Eagles. Again, Schottenheimer added that he has faith in the team’s strength staff and Parsons’ individual drills and believes that he will be fine for the game.

However, the question of his availability continues to loom over the Cowboys until the deal happens. And Jones’ latest comment seems to have put more pressure.

Jerry Jones has no plans to trade Micah Parsons

After Parsons’ softer moves didn’t work, the DE decided to seek a trade. In his message expressing gratitude to the Cowboys, he added that he “no longer” wants to play for Dallas. But will the Cowboys decide to trade the player? It doesn’t seem so.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones put an end to speculation, saying he has no plans to trade Micah Parsons despite the star linebacker’s ongoing contract standoff. Appearing on The Stephen A. Smith Show, Jones dismissed any trade talk as “BS” and made it clear that Parsons will remain in Dallas. “There’s nothing to it,” he said.

And if the trade were to happen, it won’t likely be before three years. Now, Parsons is under contract with the Cowboys for just one more year, but the team might use the franchise tag on him twice. That means the team could keep Parsons under control for three more seasons. “I can’t imagine anybody sitting out for three years, at all,” Jones shared. In his conversation with Michael Irvin, Jones said that he would do it if necessary.

Earlier, Jones said that when the team approached Parson’s agent for an offer, David Mulugheta said, “When we wanted to send the details to the agent, the agent told us to stick it up our a–.” However, Mulugheta denied the claims. For now, the tension only grows. The longer this stretches out, the bigger the risk that this off-field drama bleeds into its on-field results.