FRISCO, Texas — On Friday, Micah Parsons is scheduled to sit with Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones at AT&T Stadium to watch the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic between Ohio State and Texas (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Parsons said he plans to ask, “‘How can we become contenders? How do we bounce back from this year? What are the plans?’ Those are the type of things that I want to ask. I hope he asks me things, too.”

At some point, maybe Parsons’ future will come up.

Parsons, the No. 12 pick of the 2021 draft, is set to enter the final year of his rookie contract and is scheduled to make $24 million on the fifth-year option. The edge rusher is the top player priority for the Cowboys this offseason.

Jones has said Parsons is a cornerstone of the Cowboys’ future, right with quarterback Dak Prescott and receiver CeeDee Lamb. He has called the thought of trading Parsons nonsense, and he wants him around for the long term.

In December, Parsons told ESPN he wants his Cowboys uniform No. 11 to be considered among the likes of Nos. 77, 12, 8 and 22, worn by Hall of Famers Bob Lilly, Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith and never worn again. He also said he does not need to be the highest-paid defensive player in the game, a point he repeated on a number of occasions.

“Yeah, this is where I want to be,” Parsons said after Sunday’s 23-19 season-ending loss to the Washington Commanders. “I was called upon a star.”

If Parsons isn’t going to leave the Cowboys after 2025, then the big question is when will the team extend the edge rusher, who has four straight seasons with at least 12 sacks?

When asked if he thinks a deal could be done before the team goes to Oxnard, California, for training camp in late July, Parsons said, “Yeah, I would think so. Or hope so.”

Perhaps it could be done sooner. As Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones likes to say, it takes two sides to get a deal done. Parsons seems agreeable — though he understands his agent, David Mulugheta, will do the negotiating — and the Cowboys seem agreeable.

But recent history suggests this could take time — and we don’t have to go back far to see how this could play out.

In 2024, Lamb was entering the final season of his deal on the fifth-year option. He skipped the offseason program, organized team activities and mandatory minicamp in June. When training camp began, Lamb remained home.

It wasn’t until Aug. 27 that he signed a four-year, $134 million deal that made him the second-highest paid receiver in the NFL (Justin Jefferson).

Along the way, Jones said he wanted to see more “leaves fall” in the Lamb talks. He didn’t mind that his receiver missed practice work with Prescott — who signed the NFL’s richest deal ever hours before the season opener — or meaningless preseason games. Better to miss training camp than be susceptible to injury in camp, Jones said.

Standing outside the locker room following the Commanders’ loss, Jones was asked if it is important to get Parsons’ deal done early.

“You know, everybody puts a lot on when [the contract is] done,” Jones said. “Signing Dak when he signed and signing Lamb, it had nothing to do one way or the other with their injuries, the good things that happened or the negative things that happened. … It makes me wonder if you really think people are really that fragile. Fragile in their mentality. Fragile in their personal self. My point is no, it does not. And a lot of us live not having all the things buttoned up.

“And so I don’t believe the timing [is an issue]. What I would really hang your hat on is how much we paid him and what he needs to be and what he is. That’s the big thing.”

Jones accepts that it might not be a popular approach.

“I know I’ve got people disagreeing with me,” Jones said.

Parsons’ attendance in the offseason program the past two years has been spotty. So it’s fair to wonder whether he will be there for that, minicamp or the start of training camp without a new contract.

He has said the right things about showing up in the offseason with a deal, but he never said what he would do if he doesn’t have one.

Plus, if the Cowboys signed Parsons earlier, they could have a better ability to add players in free agency.

If things are going to be “tight” against the salary cap, as Stephen Jones said in December, then getting the multiyear deal done with Parsons could lower his cap figure by nearly half, depending on the structure. An extra $12 million in cap space could mean retaining a few of their key players. It could also allow them to pay free agents more than the veteran salary benefit contracts the Cowboys often use.

Parsons has nothing really to prove, just as Prescott and Lamb had nothing really to prove before signing their extensions.

He has been named to the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons. Since sacks became an official stat, he and Reggie White are the only players with at least 12 in each of their first four seasons. Parsons’ 52.5 sacks are the fifth most by a player in his first four seasons.

His 12 sacks in 2024 came despite missing four games with a high left ankle sprain.

“You just can’t sit on it too heavy,” Parsons said. “You got to keep going. I see [the Browns’] Myles Garrett [is] the fastest to 100 [sacks]. I’m trying to chase him now. It’s kind of like the next with me. I’m always chasing for something that’s so far ahead. Just got to stay hungry in the process.

“Kobe [Bryant] said, ‘You can rest eventually, but just not right now.’ I don’t want to get complacent like, ‘Man, I did half my career.’ I still got [a good] amount of years left. So I’m trying to maximize that, then I’ll look back and be like, ‘I really did that.'”