This Micah Parsons situation isn't new.
Well, maybe it is to Parsons, but not to the Dallas Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones.
They just did it last offseason, twice.
Both QB Dak Prescott and WR CeeDee Lamb had their eventual contract extensions linger way too long in the negotiation stage before the deals got done.
It costs the Cowboys money to play it out like this, lots of it, as it turns out.
ESPN's Bill Barnwell calculates the losses on these three deals, by not getting them done sooner, at $100 million.
MORE: Shedeur Sanders shows his NFL Draft slide might've been a mistake
The idea is that, in the NFL, salaries almost always go up for the next deal, because teams have a tendency to leapfrog the shiny new contract to give their own player slightly more money.
Barnwell figures that Prescott's waiting game alone was worth $50 million.
"Realistically, we're looking at about $50 million and some meaningful, incalculable amount more lost by the Cowboys by waiting to get Prescott's deal done twice," Barnwell wrote. "Waiting did not save them any money or prove anything beyond the fact that the organization failed to get the negotiations over the line until it had forfeited virtually all of its leverage, allowing him to sign two of the league's most player-friendly deals over the past decade."
Lamb's deal, already done, was more than $10 million in losses.
MORE: Taylor Swift is coming on Travis Kelce's podcast
And Parsons, with multiple other defensive ends raising the bar this offseason already, covers the rest of the way to the $100 million, assuming a deal actually gets done.
"In all, waiting to pay Parsons, Lamb and Prescott will likely cost the Cowboys nearly $84 million. That figure doesn't include the value of the no-tag clauses afforded to Prescott, which helped push his second contract to a level that the rest of the league hasn't matched with their own quarterbacks," Barnwell writes. "So, it's not out of line to suggest the Cowboys' negotiating tactics will have cost them approximately $100 million."
At the end of the day, Cowboys' fans will be much happier if they still have their players than if they don't.
But it's been a pricy process to get there, and the Parsons situation isn't even resolved yet.
MORE NFL NEWS:
- Shilo Sanders sets big goals for his rookie NFL season
- Morice Norris' scary injury brings improbable football journey into the spotlight
- Baker Mayfield isn't like other quarterbacks
- Bills' roster hopeful hasn't cut his hair in 7 years, for good reason
- Raiders fans blaming the same issue for Ashton Jeanty's poor start
- TreVeyon Henderson's first NFL touch went to the house