The Cincinnati Bengals still haven’t extended their 2021 superstar first-rounder. Oh, wait. Wrong team.

Sep 18, 2022; Arlington, Texas, USA; Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons (11) looks into the backfield during the game against the Cincinnati Bengals at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-Imagn Images | Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

Let’s compare the Bengals and the Dallas Cowboys for how they handled the fifth and twelfth overall picks, respectively. But that would require giving Cincinnati’s front office credit at the expense of Jerry Jones. And we cannot have that.

For a while, the Bengals were the subect of redicule for not extending Ja’Marr Chase. From that same draft class, Micah Parsons is still playing under his rookie contract.

This offseason, Chase got the largest non-quarterback contract in NFL history. He will play under a four-year, $161 million extension. Parsons, on the other hand, is scheduled to play under his 5th-year option of $24 million.

The franchise tag for edge rushers this season was $22 million. That is six million more than what Trey Hendrickson is on schedule to get this season. If only his agents had seen his potential and not signed that one-year extension. But we digress.

At a time when the Bengals organization is once again being talked about as cheap for having all the leverage in the Trey Hendrickson saga, the Dallas Cowboys have yet to ink Micah Parsons to a contract extension. Ergo, we can suppose that the Cowboys are just as “cheap” and “unfair” to their star players as the Bengals are, correct?

Of course not.

If you were to dust off and fire up your Xbox after a long hiatus, after a plethora of issues from Microsoft, to play Madden 25, the first thing you will see is Micah Parsons in a Madden cover-worthy image. EA Sports seems to be celebrating the star defensive end more than the team he suits up for.

Now, close your eyes and imagine that was Hendrickson in a Bengals uniform. Or even worse, visualize that we are still talking about the extension that Chase does not have.

The Cowboys do not have a “cheap” problem. However, all eyes are on Cincinnati and how they negotiate with Trey Hendrickson and Shemar Stewart.

Even if the Cowboys reach an extension with Parsons, that should not affect negotiations between the Bengals and Hendrickson. Age and impact on the game should put Parsons in the 40 million a year range, whereas Hendrickson should come in around $30 million per year.

Also, and more importantly, Cincinnati has already extended its 2021 NFL Draft pick, Ja’Marr Chase. And this is within the same offseason in which they also extended their second-round pick from the 2020 draft, Tee Higgins. Furthermore, it comes off a 2024 offseason when they made Joe Burrow the highest-paid player in the NFL in the non-Deshaun Watson category.

Yet, the Bengals are the ones who are being talked about as cheap and giving away all of the goodwill they’ve accumulated by extending Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins this offseason.

The next (ill)logical step:

So what should happen now? The only logical answer would be for the Bengals to trade Hendrickson and their 2025 first-round draft pick’s rights to the Cowboys for Micah Parsons.

Then, the Bengals’ front office could negotiate a new deal with Parsons. But not even that would satisfy the jackals at Cincinnati’s gates looking to feed on the narrative of being cheap.

Of course, there is zero chance of a trade happening between Cincinnati and Dallas. However, it would be interesting to hear how larger outlets would talk about that situation.

One conversation would center around the Bengals’ inability to pay top-of-the-market deals to all these players. Another talking point would be that the Bengals organization is too cheap to pay Parsons. That would be ironic as they are being dragged through the mud for hesitating to pay near the top of the market prices for Hendrickson’s services.

In the end, the Cowboys will work out a deal with their star pass rusher. Then, Jerry Jones can go back to ridiculing the Bengals organization for being cheap, even though Cincinnati reached an agreement with Chase and Higgins before sniffing a new contract for Parsons.

But the Bengals reaching a deal with their 2021 first-rounder before the Cowboys is fitting, given that the last time these two teams faced each other, the Bengals won with a late game-winning touchdown from Chase late in the fourth quarter.

But anything is possible. Parsons for Hendrickson and Stewart? Who says no?