Mina Kimes proposes $60,000,000 cap space solution for Cowboys to afford Micah Parsons’ contract extension

ESPN's NFL analyst Mina Kimes may have cracked the Dallas Cowboys' $60 million Micah Parsons problem. The Cowboys need to give Parsons a contract extension if they intend to keep him long-term, and Kimes broke it down to a simple solution.

On Monday's edition of ESPN's "NFL Live," Kimes said

"I don’t know what’s so hard about this. You take the top edge contract. I believe it's Nick Bosa, then you add some money. Boom. Done. I did it, Dallas.”

Nick Bosa signed the richest contract for a defensive player in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers in 2023. The five-year contract was valued at just over $170 million. Like Parsons, he was coming off four productive years on a first-round rookie contract.

It is never that easy with a fixed salary cap structure. Kimes elaborated on how she would make the money available.

"So the Cowboys right now have no money, right? But there are a lot of moves that they make, a few moves rather, to alleviate that situation pretty quickly.”

It would require their top two offensive stars and most expensive players, Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, to restructure their contracts to bring down the cap number. Both Prescott and Lamb signed lucrative contract extensions last offseason.

She added that signing Micah Parsons to a contract extension helps the Cowboys as it will reduce his cap hit this season. Parsons has a $24 million cap hit as he is on the fifth-year option of his rookie contract.

"And then if you do deal with Micah Parsons, similar to what I just said, which is basically the Nick Bose deal plus, you actually can bring his cap hit down a decent amount too."

Signing Parsons to a long-term deal along with the contract restructures that Kimes suggested will help the Cowboys' cap situation, but it would also tie their long-term future to three players. The salary of the three stars would amount to almost half of the Cowboys' base salary cap of $295 million.

"You do those three moves, and suddenly you're at over $60 million in cap space. Now, it would mean you are tying your fate to these three players and that you want them to be the future of the franchise, not just in the next couple of years but even beyond that.

“But if I'm Dallas, I feel good about that. I think those three are really good football players, and then you do that. You have a little bit of flexibility to move around and address some of the other positions on the roster."

Micah Parsons is just one of several major contract decisions looming for Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys will have to solve the Micah Parsons conundrum this offseason, but it is not their only offseason decision involving their players.

Defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa could still be franchise-tagged if the two sides could not agree to an extension. Starting running back Rico Dowdle and four-time Pro Bowl pass rusher DeMarcus Lawrence are also set to hit free agency.