Micah Parsons contract dispute: Brian Schottenheimer confident Cowboys LB will play Week 1

Amid Micah Parsons’ contract dispute with the Dallas Cowboys, Brian Schottenheimer said he’s confident the star linebacker will play Week 1. Parsons has not been practicing after he requested a trade.

Parsons’ contract situation has taken multiple turns this offseason as the former Penn State star works toward a new agreement that would likely make him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL. Jerry Jones, however, previously said he was not ready to say whether Parsons would be on the field for the season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Schottenheimer further addressed the situation. When asked about whether it’s more difficult to scheme a game plan without his star player, the Cowboys head coach said that’s not the case because he thinks Parsons will be on the field for the opener.

“No, because I think at the end of the day, we feel like Micah’s going to be out there when we line up against Philadelphia here in 15 days or whatever it is,” Schottenheimer said during his Wednesday press conference. “The answer is, I feel good about that, yeah.”

Asked to clarify whether he thinks Parsons will play with or without a contract extension, Schottenheimer doubled down. He made it clear he thinks Parsons will be on the field when the Cowboys kick off the 2025 season.

“I feel good that Micah’s going to be out there against the Philadelphia Eagles,” Schottenheimer said.

Micah Parsons has been around the Cowboys team during training camp, though he’s not participating in workouts as negotiations go along. As for when a resolution could come, ESPN’s Adam Schefter said the two sides aren’t in good standing. He went so far as to predict Parsons and the cowboys could be heading “towards divorce.”

“This is part of the circus. You know, the circus has all kinds of acts, and some go sideways, and some go off the way that he thought,” Schefter said on Unsportsmanlike. “And I just think that, you know, Dallas always has drama. Jerry loves the drama. He likes to create drama. And there’s going to be drama with this now and going forward. Now again, like I said, for all I know the two sides decide to sit down at the bargaining table and they hammer out a deal that makes Micah the highest paid non quarterback in NFL history. Could that happen? 

“Yes, it could … There’s zero indication, zero, that that’s going to happen, that there’s going to be a reverse. And it sounds like at some point in time, whether that’s now after the season, after two seasons, it sounds like the two sides are headed towards a divorce at some time.”