Nearly 30 years have passed since the Dallas Cowboys last won the Super Bowl in January of 1996, yet the prevailing sentiment throughout Jerry Jones’ front office is that the team is as close as ever to title contention. A big part of that sentiment, however, is predicated on the rostering of their key pass rusher, Micah Parsons.
Jones and Parsons have been drudging through negotiations on a massive contract extension throughout the entire offseason, but so long as a deal gets done, Dallas figures to once again be in play for the NFC East crown.
In fact, the former host of Undisputed and lifelong Cowboys fan, Skip Bayless, is “more excited than ever” for the upcoming season despite being “stuck” with the usual members of the roster and a “puppet” of a head coach in Brian Schottenheimer.
“I’m still stuck with Dak. I’m stuck with Jerry. I’m stuck with Micah Parsons missing all of camp just so he can get overpaid. I’m stuck with another new head coach that’s probably a puppet… Just try to bounce back and be respectable.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Bayless has suggested that Dallas will be “overpaying” Parsons in their next deal. After spending the first several years of Parsons’ career touting the young pass rusher for being a “game wrecker,” the veteran sports reporter changed his tune towards the end of the 2024 regular season.
In December of last year, he apologized for suggesting that Parsons is worth top-tier money.
“I leaped to the conclusion that Micah already belonged at least in the same sentence with Lawrence Taylor and he does not, and it appears he never will. I was wrong about Micah Parsons, I’ll be the first to admit. He has explosive ability, but he’s not big and strong enough to dominate even the way that Charles Harley did.”
Even though he was forced to admit that both the Washington Commanders and the Philadelphia Eagles are “clearly better than the Cowboys overall,” Bayless is still holding out hope that they aren’t “that much” better than Dallas.
Bayless was even willing to go as far as to hint at the Cowboys potentially spoiling the Eagles’ party on opening night.
“The Eagles took some serious free agent losses… I just have a feeling, as loaded as the Eagles still are, it will take the Eagles just a little while to regain their rhythm and momentum… I love that the Dallas Cowboys got ‘thrown to the wolves’ on opening Thursday night… In Philadelphia, Dak Prescott has been All World.”
Oddsmakers aren’t quite as optimistic about Week 1 as Bayless may be, but then again, the Cowboys have a history of spoiling parties. No defending champion has lost on its subsequent opening night since 2012, when a similar scenario occurred.
Another NFC East franchise by the name of the New York Giants was set to hang their Super Bowl banner on opening night of the 2012 season, and much like the Eagles now, their scheduled opponents were the Dallas Cowboys. The Giants would go on to lose 24-17, as Dallas relished in ruining the festivities.
Suffice it to say, Philadelphia will need to be on high alert should it hope to both defend and celebrate its place atop the football world.
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