T.J. Watt and Micah Parsons are hunting for massive paydays

AtoZ Sports

Kyle Crabbs discusses how T.J. Watt from the Pittsburgh Steelers and Micah Parsons of the Dallas Cowboys are both looking to score massive contract extensions

Transcript

00:00Both T.J. Watt and Micah Parsons are looking for big-time paydays from the Steelers and

00:04the Cowboys, respectively, but the script from last offseason suggests this thing is

00:10probably going to stretch out through the full dog days of summer.

00:16Kyle Krabs with A to Z Sports and both T.J. Watt and Micah Parsons are firmly in the spotlight

00:21this summer as star defenders looking to cash in on new contracts from their respective teams.

00:28The only question for T.J. Watt is not if he's going to continue to produce at a star level,

00:34but how much longer he can continue to produce at the elite level in which he has been in

00:39Pittsburgh.

00:40He's set to turn 31 years old this fall, but has triple-digit sacks under his belt already.

00:46Micah Parsons is more than halfway to triple-digit sacks despite only playing four years in the

00:52NFL.

00:53He's currently scheduled to play his fifth-year option out with the Cowboys in 2025.

00:58But if you remember the script writers and how they handled last year in a different

01:03position, there may be some context clues as far as how this is going to play out when

01:08it's all said and done.

01:10Wind the clocks back 12 months.

01:12Jared Goff signs a quarterback contract extension for $53 million per season.

01:17Then Trevor Lawrence signs for $55 million.

01:19Tua Tungvaloa signs for $53.1 million at the beginning of training camp.

01:24And then Jordan Love signs for $55 million, but his contract signing comes with a record-setting

01:29signing bonus.

01:30And then Dak Prescott signs his deal last and gets a market reset at both average per year

01:35at $60 million per year and the signing bonus record as well with a whopping $80 million

01:41signing bonus in his back pocket when he put pen to paper.

01:46Now contrast that journey to what we've seen thus far this offseason from the edge rush market

01:52where you kind of have to just exclude the Trey Hendrickson saga because Trey Hendrickson

01:57has been begging the Bengals to put a contract offer in front of his face that's at least

02:02fair market value.

02:04That has not happened, but that saga is unique to Cincinnati.

02:08You had Max Crosby sign a three-year deal valued at $35.5 million per year, only to then

02:14see Miles Garrett come up over the top at $40 million per year.

02:18The Neil Hunter with the Texans then edged just in front by $1.1 million of the Max Crosby

02:25contract, just like Tua Tungvaloa did to the Jared Goff contract.

02:29That leaves two names left.

02:31And the last two names were the two names that got paid the highest.

02:34Jordan Love got an at-the-time record-setting signing bonus before Dak Prescott topped that

02:40and got $5 million more on an annual average salary basis.

02:44The coincidence here, of course, is not just that the Dallas Cowboys are negotiating with

02:49both Micah Parsons as they did with Dak Prescott last year, but the agencies that represent the

02:55two players were the same agencies that represented the two players who were last last year, CAA

03:01and Athletes First.

03:03CAA with Todd France got the Dak Prescott contract done.

03:06The question now is whether CAA, who represents T.J.

03:10Watt, will insist on being last yet again this time around.

03:15Everybody knows the longer you wait, the more you pay if you're signing players to contract

03:19extensions.

03:20But this is a two-way street.

03:22And these agencies know that the more chips are on the table, the more clarity there is

03:29as far as how much they can realistically ask for and then ultimately prompt the teams to

03:34have to pay.

03:35That's what CAA did with Dak Prescott last year and how he managed to blow every other

03:40quarterback contract out of the water.

03:43Now, it is worth noting the Cowboys do have the franchise tag in their back pocket shouldn't

03:49the negotiations with Parsons go sideways.

03:53But if they're intent on paying Parsons long term, the franchise tag would simply be delaying

03:58the inevitable, in which case you would be paying more as more contracts get done between

04:03now and the time when you finally come to a resolution with your star pass rusher.

04:09The challenge here is who blinks first between Watt and CAA and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Parsons

04:17and Mulliggett and Athletes First, against the Dallas Cowboys.

04:21These two contract negotiations may be waiting for the other shoe to fall.

04:26And the question becomes, who throws their hands up first and says, enough is enough.

04:32Let's get this business done and walk away from winning the negotiation.

04:36That central theme lies true here, just like it did last year for the quarterback negotiation.

04:43Whoever is going to get paid next is probably going to surrender some money in the process.

04:50Is that worth it to get the business done?

04:53Or are you willing to prove that patience is a virtue once again, like the quarterbacks did

04:59last year and like Dak Prescott did with the Dallas Cowboys by waiting this thing out as

05:04long as possible before ultimately pushing it across the finish line?

05:08So, let's go ahead.

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