The Dallas Cowboys have a lot at stake entering the 2025 NFL season. After a disaster of a 2024 campaign, the enormous price of the roster, alongside the massive haul they gave up for George Pickens, means the hopes for this season are high.
The Cowboys are looking like a contender on paper with a core of Pickens, Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Micah Parsons heading into the 2025 season. But who’s the best player among these four stars?
NFL Analyst Reveals Cowboys’ Best Player Heading into 2025 Season
PFSN analyst Jacob Infante named Parsons the best Cowboys player, arguing that the four-time Pro Bowler was probably the best pass rusher in the world today.
“CeeDee Lamb stakes a strong claim to being the best player on the Dallas Cowboys,” Infante wrote. “In the end, Micah Parsons’ dominance since entering the league makes him the strongest option.
“Missing four games due to injury limited Micah Parsons from reaching his fourth All-Pro in four seasons, but he’s still made the Pro Bowl in every year he’s played. He has 52.5 sacks in his career and has never had fewer than 12 sacks in a single season. He might be the best pass-rusher in the world today.”
Both Lamb and Parsons were first-round picks of the 2020 and 2021 NFL Draft, respectively, and have lived up to their draft expectations fully. Lamb has posted four consecutive 1,000 receiving yard seasons in addition to 900+ yards as a rookie, making four Pro Bowls and three All-Pro teams.
However, Parsons also has four Pro Bowl and three All-Pro selections despite being a year younger in the NFL than Lamb. He was also voted Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2021 and has 12+ sacks in each of his four seasons. He was on pace for his fourth consecutive All-Pro honor in 2024 before missing four games with an ankle sprain and ended up with 12 sacks and 23 quarterback hits.
The Cowboys would also agree that Parsons is their best player and have vowed to make him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league. That honor currently rests with Ja’Marr Chase, who inked a four-year, $161 million extension with the Cincinnati Bengals earlier in the offseason.
Sources: For weeks, there have been murmurs about whether the #Cowboys will actually give Micah Parsons a record-breaking contract — or if a trade could become a possibility. It still seems far-fetched, but with the market now at $40M per year, this situation is one to watch. pic.twitter.com/nOzQyeyJ5P
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) March 9, 2025
The Cowboys exercised Parsons’ fifth-year option last year and have yet to give him an extension. The chatter around his contract extension has been going on for months, but the Cowboys, as always, are dragging it out. Both Prescott and Lamb went through similar situations before eventually signing big-money deals, and Parsons would hope a similar fate awaits him.
If the Cowboys want to avoid another drawn-out, high-stakes contract standoff, which has already started with Parsons absent from OTAs, locking up one of the most dynamic defensive players in NFL history sooner rather than later might be in their best interest.
