Nick Bosa’s contract with San Francisco 49ers will impact Dallas Cowboys, Micah Parsons

A big domino dropped in the NFL on Wednesday afternoon and it fell to the tune of $34M per year. We are talking about San Francisco 49ers pass rusher Nick Bosa, who agreed to terms with his team on a five-year, $170M deal according to Adam Schefter. What’s more is that the deal reportedly includes $122.5M guaranteed.

The 49ers are the hill that the Cowboys cannot get over, but that is a conversation for another day (hopefully in late January which a much different ending than recent history suggests). As of now the 49ers and the $34M per year that they are giving Bosa will serve as the blueprint for Dallas’ discussions with Micah Parsons beginning in the offseason.

We now have as clear of a picture as ever at the starting point for contract negotiations with Micah Parsons

It is barely Week 1 and nobody is interested in fast forwarding through the season that took way too long to get here, but when it is all over, however it ends, the Cowboys will have one of the most important contract negotiations in franchise history to figure out. They will be squarely focused on Micah Parsons (not to mention situations with Dak Prescott and/or CeeDee Lamb if they are not resolved by then).

Given that Bosa has hit $34M per year it stands to reason that the conversation will start at $35M per year with Parsons and at least $123M guaranteed. What’s more is that the standard has also been set by both Bosa and fellow rusher T.J. Watt for a salary cap percentage north of 15%.

To be clear Bosa and Watt are the most recent two Defensive Player of the Year winners but that is company that Micah Parsons certainly belongs in (he is the favorite to win it this year). Whether or not Parsons does pull off that individual accolade is probably irrelevant though, his body of work speaks for itself to be paid along the lines of the NFL’s best.

Again, this is a very future problem for the Cowboys, but that day will come sooner than we all think. Dallas just took care of Terence Steele which also needed to get done, but the cost of drafting well is rich second contracts.

It stands to reason that Micah Parsons is going to wind up as the highest-paid defender in NFL history when he puts pen to paper, and as of Wednesday we know a lot more about exactly what those numbers could look like.