Micah Parsons may not have wanted to leave the Dallas Cowboys, but it sounds like the star pass-rusher has secured himself a significant raise by doing so.
Parsons was traded to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday in a stunning blockbuster deal. As part of the agreement, the Packers signed him to a 4-year, $188 million contract extension. The deal includes $136 million guaranteed.
Parsons is now the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history in terms of both average annual salary and total guarantees. The $47 million average annual value on his new contract dwarfs the $41 million per year T.J. Watt got from the Pittsburgh Steelers and $40 million Myles Garrett got from the Cleveland Browns earlier this offseason.
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, the Cowboys’ final offer to Parsons was for around the same annual salary as Watt and Garrett — $41 million or so per year.
“Jerry Jones said when they had their negotiations with Micah Parsons they got to what he thought was an agreement, which was about $41 million or a little less per year in new money. He thought they were done,” Rapoport said. “The agents wanted to keep going. The Packers kept going. It is $47 million per year in new money on the extension. Micah Parsons’ agents did right by him. That is a $6 million-plus difference.”
From The Insiders on @NFLNetwork: Bottomline for Micah Parsons is that he’ll make a lot more with the #Packers, compared to the #Cowboys best offer was — more than $6M per year more. pic.twitter.com/nNmynNO6J4
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 29, 2025
Jerry Jones has said publicly that he had a handshake agreement with Parsons in April but that Parsons’ agent torpedoed the deal. If that is true, that would mean Parsons had an offer for $40-41 million per year before both Watt and Garrett signed their deals, which would have reset the market.
It would now be an understatement to say that Parsons reset the market with the Packers. Jones has gone into damage control mode by making some laughable claims about the trade, but there is no question Parsons is the big winner in the deal.
