OXNARD, Calif. – How is this for symmetry to the 2025 Dallas Cowboys training camp?
This all began out here at the River Ridge Sports Complex with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones being peppered with questions about a Micah Parsons contract extension.
And camp essentially ended out here under the ocean-blue skies with Jerry being asked the same questions after Wednesday’s final full practice of camp before the Cowboys pull up stakes around 1 p.m. PDT on Thursday to head home after a 26-day stay.
Now do you think talks will pick up with Micah?
“I don’t know necessarily talks will,” Jones said, “but we got a game coming, and he’s under contract.”
Then this: Are there deadlines to know whether Micah Parsons plans to play in Week 1 or not?
“No, not all,” Jerry said. “You don’t have deadlines when you’re under a contract.”
He was then asked if there is no extension agreement will Micah be ready to play against Philadelphia?
“Again, all we have to go on is contracts, and we are negotiating for a contract. And when you do a contract, you would hope after a negotiation, that’s what teams look to for what the obligations are, so I have a lot of respect for a contract.”
As Jerry is saying, Micah is under contract after the Cowboys picked up his fifth-year option, so what he’s suggesting is if the two sides can’t come to an agreement before Sept. 4 and Micah continues to “hold-in” and refuses to play, the Cowboys would likely put him on some inactive list. That would cost him 1/18th of his 2025 guaranteed base salary, like between $1.2 to $1.4 million each week.
And by the way, there is no deadline for the extension, except for Micah’s pocketbook, if he so chooses.
That will always be the Cowboys leverage, the almighty dollar.
- Malik On The Spot: Sometimes, timing is everything. Take Malik Davis, the Cowboys’ former running back who in 2022 went from the practice squad to playing 12 games as a rookie, rushing for 161 yards on 38 carries and one touchdown. In 2023, Davis played one game, spending the rest of the season on the practice squad. Same for 2024. Then was released after signing a futures contract after the draft in 2025. Well, here Davis is again, signs one day with the Cowboys, who are dealing with running-back-room injuries and needed an able body. And without the benefit of even one padded practice goes out to lead the team in rushing in the first preseason game with 63 yards on seven carries. Well, as he pointed out after Tuesday’s practice, good thing the Cowboys didn’t call him the previous week: “I had just had all four impacted wisdom teeth removed.” Wouldn’t have been healthy enough to play tackle football. Timing, right?
- Somebody Draft Phil: The Cowboys selected Clemson running back Phil Mafah with their second of three seventh-round picks in the NFL Draft. The guy ran for 1,115 yards and eight touchdowns for Clemson in 2024. In 2023, he totaled 965 yards rushing, including 186 on a Clemson-record 36 carries against Notre Dame, and he finished his four-year career with 2,887 yards rushing. Yet 238 players were drafted ahead of him. Say what? Well, No. 37 has shown he is outplaying his draft status, not only in the first preseason game but also in the scrimmage and consistently in practice. What gives? “This is the first time in pads with a good shoulder,” Mafah said. What most don’t realize, the 6-1, 232-pound rookie played last season at Clemson with a torn labrum in his shoulder. Went to the Scouting Combine for interviews only. Didn’t work out. Now playing free. Could be the steal of the draft running as if his hair’s on fire.
- What We Saw: Kicker Brandon Aubrey, in back-to-back live kicking sessions this week, went five of six on both Tuesday and Wednesday, one miss from 44 yards with the wind and one miss from 45 against the wind. But he also came back Tuesday to nail a 52-yarder … Linebacker Marist Liufau is having one of the best camps on defense, lining up outside when the Cowboys are in their base 4-3 alignment, attributing his upgraded play thanks to being in the second year of his NFL career … Man, can George Pickens snatch a ball, his catch radius suggesting he’s always open … Cornerback Trevon Diggs seems to be progressing, getting in better conditioning now that’s he’s working daily with Cowboys rehab specialist Britt Brown. But he still has yet to come off PUP, though doing a few ball drills to the side with Cowboys strength and conditioning coordinator Harold Nash … Nate Thomas continues to improve at left tackle in place of the rehabbing Tyler Guyton, and that he only played 10 snaps in the first preseason game indicates the coaching staff is intent on limiting his exposure to injury … And on Wednesday, Guyton was working on the resistance cords with Britt, definitely a step in the right direction … Nice pick by Markquese Bell of Joe Milton, and then one late in Wednesday’s practice by Sam Williams off Dak Prescott, taking the ball 100 yards for a would-be touchdown.
- Snap Perspective: There seems to be some worry out there about the limited snaps in the first preseason game given to some of the Cowboys’ young players. Well, look at it this way. Most of these frontline players, especially the starters on the offensive line, got extensive work in the scrimmage with the Rams. So no need to overdo it in that first preseason game. Maybe more Saturday night against the Ravens.
- Camping Out: While Miles Sanders (knee) returned to practice, rookie Jaydon Blue still is nursing his knee/ankle injury, though he’s been doing some rehab work prior to the start of practice … Defensive end Payton Turner left practice early on Tuesday, having suffered a rib injury against the Rams but mainly to just give him a break, though never like to see a player going into the injury tent with two of the doctors in tow as he did on Tuesday … Same sort of precaution with wide receiver Jalen Brooks nursing a hip bruise, not practicing on Tuesday … This one snuck by me on Friday when the Cowboys placed offensive lineman Dakota Shepley on injured reserve and claimed offensive tackle Nick Broeker on waivers after the Steelers released him … And the Cowboys then on Tuesday released Shepley off IR with an injury settlement … And for what it’s worth, the Cowboys averaged 5.5 yards a carry running against the Rams, ranking second in the NFL after the first round of preseason games, behind just the Packers at 5.9. Who realized?
Couldn’t resist going back to Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer one more time for this week’s last word, and it’s really the last vignette to add a bit of levity during these training camps that usually are very serious. And this little story came up when asked on Monday who he might have talked to after his first NFL game as a head coach:
Began saying he talked to his wife, a couple of guys on the staff, and then says, “But I’ll actually make fun of myself for a second. After the game was over, I did the team prayer. I called them up, talked to the guys and decided I was going to do the team prayer because my faith is really important to me. Well, I went straight Ricky Bobby (Talladega Nights) on them, and I actually cursed. Yeah, I cursed. I think I asked God to help us in the red zone and said, ‘Damn, we left some opportunities out there.’ So I fired myself from doing the postgame prayer. I will not be doing that anymore.
“We played the (movie) clip for the guys. I said, ‘Let’s talk about accountability because we got to address this. We got get this fixed.’ And we played the whole clip of Will Ferrell at the kitchen table doing the prayer where he’s talking to Baby Jesus and all that stuff, and I think everybody knew because Sam Williams afterward said to Dak, ‘Can you … swear during the prayer?’
“So I have fired myself. I will no longer be doing the postgame prayer. Chalk that up that when you’re that emotional, and there’s the ups and downs in the game, you don’t need to be the one talking to God.”
So then, Brian, who gets that pious job of conducting the prayer?
“It will be the team chaplain or someone calmer than me.”
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