The financial reason behind the Micah Parsons switch

Dallas Cowboys defensive star Micah Parsons is making official what we already knew, he will now be a full-time defensive end. What is interesting is what could be behind the decision.

According to a report by Clarence Hill, who has covered the team for more than 25 years and now writes for the Star Telegram newspaper, Micha Parsons is training on his own, in Austin, Tx. and not at the team facility to add muscle mass to her body looking to transition from full-back to defensive end.

Cowboys Pro Bowl linebacker Micah Parsons is not participating in the teams offseason program. He is working out in Austin, adding bulk and weight to be a full-time defensive end next season, he said. Will return to Cowboys for OTAs. pic.twitter.com/HWgwbdLjXS

— Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) May 3, 2023

Will Micah Parsons do something different from what we’ve seen so far?

In terms of pure football, you don’t really anticipate much of a difference. After all, in 2021 alone, according to PFF data, Parsons lined up in 859 snaps on the defensive line to just 195 in the box. In other words, he spent more than 81% of the total snaps he played lining up somewhere on the defensive line.

If he was on the edge, as a DE does, or he was somewhere else, if he was with one hand on the floor or on two points, that’s where the magic is.

What defensive coordinator Dan Quinn can do with him isolating him against the weakest link on the opposing offensive line is interesting. Crossing, shooting from linebackers and defensive backs will be the most important elements of this equation to continue to get the most out of it. That is, it matters more what happens after the snap than where he lines up before it.

So why is Micha Parsons now a defensive end?

If it won’t make much of a difference in terms of football, then we have to at least consider that this is a business move.

Parsons came to the league as a first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, so his contract is not up for discussion at the moment, since he will be eligible to receive an extension until the end of the 2023 season. The key to the previous statement It’s in the “for now” part.

It will be necessary to think about what this and the following seasons can bring for him. Let’s remember that the team selected Mazi Smith in the first round of this year’s draft and that Demarcus Lawrence’s contract runs out of guarantees after 2023. These two factors are of the utmost importance.

With someone who demands attention on the opposite side of the line like Lawrence and with a player like Smith who takes up space in the middle of the line that opponents can’t ignore, what Micah can achieve starting this September could be a spectacular season in production, one where thinking of 20 sacks is not out of the question.

Something like this will allow your agent to start negotiating a new deal as early as February 2024. If they come to an agreement soon, great, everyone’s happy; the player would have capitalized on his great season and gotten good pay, while the team would lock up its defensive star for years to come before prices continue to rise.

But there’s also the possibility that the Cowboys drag their feet, get tough in the negotiations and this drags on, that they exercise the fifth-year option that the rookie contract allows and still after they use the franchise tag tool. It is right here where the change of position makes all the difference.

The average annual earnings of the five highest-paid linebackers in the league is $18.75 million, while that of the edge rushers is $25.4 million, a gap of $6.65 million makes all the difference in a franchise player tag, since either for Parsons to collect them in a guaranteed way during that year, or to take them as a starting point for the negotiation of a long-term contract.

It is not the same to start a negotiation knowing that you have 18.75 million guaranteed than if that figure is 25.4, the approximation is different, since from the outset that amount is taken as a starting point and more than that is sought.

Of course this analysis is projected several years into the future, however it looks like a smart move by Parsons and his team of advisers to prevent this among a few other complications.