BREAKING: Micah Parsons filed grievance over his 2025 salary amid Cowboys contract dispute |NFL LIVE

BREAKING: Micah Parsons filed grievance over his 2025 salary amid Cowboys contract dispute |NFL LIVE

Dallas’s star Micah Parsons remains without a contract extension with the season opener O eight days away. New head coach Brian Shottenheimer addressed Parson’s availability for week one. At the end of the day, as soon as he get out there, that’s great. But, uh, again, there’ll be a ramp up plan for him. And, you know, uh, when he lines up out there to play, you know, do I think he would play 75 plays and every play? Probably not. You know, I don’t think that that’s real. Um but um I do think that he can uh be very disruptive like we all know but the best way to get good at football and to is to play football and so I would say as soon as possible would be would be the desired effect. Jeeoff, what more can you tell us about what’s going on with a not insignificant division game eight days away? Yeah. Well, very little is happening at this hour. That being said, it does still feel like I I I don’t want to give any kind of false optimism, but there is still this weird sense when I talk to people in Dallas that they feel like there’s still a chance that this gets done. I I don’t know how that happens. I don’t know when it happens, but I will say that they have not given up hope that they can get a deal done that gets Micah Parsons back on the field. That said, as Jerry Jones has postured throughout, he expects Micah Parsons to line up even if he does not have the extension done for the Cowboys. He has continuously said he’s not going to trade him, that Parsons will play in this game. But what Shottenheimimer, by the way, is saying here is very simply that he has not had enough time to get into football shape to be expected to play in that game. And I know Lou knows this better than I do, but I have heard from coaches for years say that their biggest fear with a player not getting enough reps in training camp is soft tissue injuries. And the biggest fear that the Cowboys have right now would be to put Parsons out there and uh potentially experience something like that. Yeah, it’s something we talked about all offseason, Jeff, right? I mean, we were talking about it with Trey Hendrickson. We’ve talked about it with him. We talked about it with Terry McLaren in particular because of the fact that he plays a position that requires so much running. The only thing I’ll say is this though, okay? There is a guy out there in in the past decade that missed two training camps and still went on to be the baddest dude in the NFL, that being Aaron Donald. Think back to 2018. He misses the entire training camp. He signs like basically the day after the last preseason game and signs the richest contract in history for a non-quarterback, then goes out and has 20 sacks and leads his team to a Super Bowl. It can be done. I wouldn’t want to play this game of roulette with a guy, you know, with a with a fine-tuned athlete like Micah Parsons, you know, and risk that soft tissue injury. There is going to need to be a ramp up period. And look, all that’s a given. The thing that’s interesting to me about, you know, this optimism down in Dallas about potentially this getting done, does that mean, you know, in terms of Micah being on the football field for week one, does that mean he’s playing under his original deal? Is he going to play under his fifthear option and then they have, you know, the two franchise tags that they could use on him the next two years, or is an actual deal going to get done? Are they banking on Micah saying, “Hey, look, I’m not missing out on 24 million bucks.” You know, I I can’t ever replace that money. I’m going to take the money if they’re going to make me do it. It’s it’s a terrible situation for all involved. It’s just terrible. I can’t even believe that we’re still talking about this. Well, Lewis, it’s kind of unfair to compare anybody to Aaron Donald. You You Pit Panthers are built a little differently. Uh Jeff was talking about perhaps injury concern. I didn’t mean to inflate the ego as much as I did. Uh the team the Cowboys face in that season opener. Some good news on the injury front that according to our Eagles reporter Tim McManis reporting that AJ Brown, Devonte Smith, and parenthetically somehow Landon Dickerson all participated in practice today again with the season opener in exactly eight days. But who’s counting? We are here at NFL Live. Coming up on NFL Live with Rashi Rice suspended six games, the Chiefs face talking about it all summer. Mar remains sitting out of practice. as the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson. We’ll see if the two sides can figure out a way to get a deal done. I’m highly concerned. I I didn’t think it was going to get this far. Joe Burrow publicly lobbying to keep everybody together. They are not going to move. I don’t know how this gets resolved. Bengals finally found a way to do it. They very much wanted this to be a package deal. A $14 million race. Now at least it feels like you’re going in with a full deck of cards. I’m thankful that we were able to get some some really big deals done with some of the best players on planet Earth. It was a busy off season for that Bengals front office since he locked down both top receivers for the next four years. Dear Chase becoming the highest paid non-QB in league history and T. Higgins got $15 million US. They also signed BJ Hill, Mike Cassiki to three-year deals. Then Monday, finally, resolution for Trey Hendrickson, raising his 2025 salary to 30 million this season. And the reigning sack leader spoke today for the first time since that new deal. I’m a football player, you know, and football players play football. So, you know, it’s good to be back out there with the guys. Uh, not that I didn’t enjoy coaching, but that’s not what I’m here to do. Um, looking forward to getting after the quarterbacks. The priority was always the 2025 Bengals, whatever this looked like. You know, unfortunately for me, I can’t write my own contracts. You know, that’s something that we had uh, you know, common ground in finding, and that’s what we’re doing now. And and that’s what’s best for the 2025 Bengals, I think, is just to suit up and play and incredibly humbled by the experience. Jeff Darlington back with us. Jeff, it was a league best 17 and a half sacks last season for Hendrickson. That accounted for 49% of the team total. At the start of this offseason, a lot of people were worried Cincinnati wouldn’t get this deal done. How did it come together? Well, it it came together by complete compromise. We talk about the idea of it being a long-term extension. Well, it’s not. It’s essentially a one-year rental to allow them to eventually perhaps hit free agency. The Bengals were always uncomfortable with the idea of overpaying given the fact that Hendrickson is coming up on his 30th birthday. So instead, they will have him for this season, like Joe Burrow had wanted, to help out a defense that clearly does uh need Hendrickson’s presence, but also still able to do those big deals on the offensive side of the ball. So, it’s not as if this is the perfect scenario where they have Hendrickx in the Hendrickson in the long-term fold, but they at least can go into this season knowing that they’ve got their leading sack guy. They also have the offensive firepower to get it going there. So perhaps a short-term resolution, but one at least that gets them through the 2025 season. Lewis Riddick subbing back on. Uh Lewis Hendrickson got paid, but this defense was bad in stretches with him last year. They they bring in a new DC, Al Golden. How much will he improve this defense that frankly needs to carry its load? Look, it’s going to be all dependent upon how he can get these young players, how fast he can get them to develop, how fast he can get them to follow Trey Hendrickson’s lead. You know, when you’re talking about guys like Shamar Stewart, like Demetrius Knight Jr., like Barrett Carter, the first, second, and fourth round pick, respectively this year. All of these guys have tried to tap into Trey Hendrickson, and kind of learn how to be a professional trips of the trade, so they can hit the ground running. Because look, they know they know on the defensive side that they’re the ones quite honestly that are the weak links right now. They know that Joe Burrow is putting up yardage at an absolute hall of fame rate. That Jamar Chase is triple crown winning, you know, leading in receptions, reception, receiving yards and touchdowns and they’re sitting there on the other side of the ball dropping the ball over and over again. So now it’s going to be up to Al Golden to get these guys really up to speed. It’s up to the personnel department considering how topheavy they are from a salary cap uh perspective uh on the offensive side of the ball to say, “Hey, look, we have to make sure we’re identifying the right kind of guys from a football character, personal character, skills, uh skills specifics to make sure that if we’re going young on that side of the ball and really building primarily through the draft that we’re giving our coaching staff the right kind of guys. So far, it hasn’t really worked out. So that’s what they need to really start hitting on in order for them to kind of get back to where they want to get to. And Lewis, to underscore your point, since sacks became official more than what, 40 years ago, the Bengals are the only team to have the league leader in touchdown passes, touchdown catches, and sacks. Yet they went 9 and eight and still missed the playoffs. Speaking of that touchdown pass leader, Joe Burrow showed little concern he can maintain the MVP caliber numbers he put up, frankly, in vain last season. In a recent Sports Illustrated feature, he said, quote, “I’m not sure I would say anyone’s playing the position better than I am right now. I’m pretty confident in my ability to go out and do that every Sunday. Now, it’s just showing that consistency, showing it year in, year out. I think what separates the legends is being able to do it year in year out for 5, 10 years at a time.” Lewis, this is a guy, Burrow, who had 21 touchdowns to three picks in games that Cincinnati lost. How much pressure is on him to maintain that level in 2025? Look, Joe knows what he has to do. He he know he knows, you know, what the task calls for, what the job calls for. And you know, another thing about the fact that like the way in which this young man is playing and has played since he entered since he was drafted by Cincinnati, he’s doing it behind an offensive line that has been like Swiss cheese. It’s been like a sie. I mean, they have been in the bottom corner of the league in pass blocked win rate. Every year he’s been there. So, he’s not he’s just he’s taking a beating and having to and still being able to be damn near perfect and getting the ball where it needs to get to. And that’s why he’s he has every right to say, “Hey, look, I played the game right now. I don’t see anybody playing the game better than me right now.” And he’s right. And he know, like I said, he knows what he has to do. He’s just hoping, I’m sure, just like everyone else in Cincinnati and anyone else na nationally who’s a Bengals fan that they can just become average this top 16 just in the top half of the league or just outside of it on defense in whatever metric you want to use because they’re not really good at any of them. Well, a metric where Burrow again underscored how impressive he was in vain. Third QB to miss the playoffs while throwing at least 40 touchdown passes and the first to do so since the most recent playoff expansion. Three of those touchdowns came against the Cowboys on Monday Night Football. Good job. [Music] Woo! Damn it. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] foreign. Huh? me. [Music] [Music] What come? [Music] foreign [Music] now. My anchor. [Music]

BREAKING: Micah Parsons filed grievance over his 2025 salary amid Cowboys contract dispute | NFL LIVE #espn #nfl #football #nflnews