Abdul Carter didn’t need a full game to win over New York Giants fans in his preseason debut. He literally only needed six snaps. The No. 3 overall pick stepped on the field in Saturday’s 34-25 win over Buffalo and immediately made life miserable for the Bills’ first-team offense. Just ask four-time Pro Bowler Dion Dawkins. And it wasn't just fans watching the 21-year-old feast, either.
Carter’s dominance caught Micah Parsons’ attention. The Cowboys’ contract-squabbling, trade-requesting, pass-rushing machine saw the highlights and wasted zero time ogling over it on social media: “They asked me if Abdul could be another great! I told them he could be the best one!” Not only is that objectively cool coming from someone of his caliber, but it's also not nothing.
The rookie fired right back, telling Parsons he can’t wait to see him “get paid what you EARNED!!” Given that Parsons is in the middle of the messiest contract standoff since... well, probably the last Cowboys contract standoff, you could almost hear Jerry Jones grinding his teeth from across the NFC East.
My brudda🦾
— Abdul Carter (@1NCRDB1) August 10, 2025
can’t wait to see you get paid what you EARNED!!@MicahhParsons11 https://t.co/UABDr2KmzF
Penn State connection between Abdul Carter and Micah Parsons could spell trouble for Cowboys
Parsons and Carter go way back... kinda. Both wore No. 11 at Penn State, both were game-wreckers in the Nittany Lions defense, and both left Happy Valley as top-tier NFL prospects.
Parsons even took Carter under his wing before the draft, training with him, testing him, and pushing him toward becoming a top pick. The mentor-mentee thing stuck, even with them playing for two franchises that despise one another.
And that’s the part that has to keep Jerry up at night. Parsons is so much more than the most talented player in Dallas; he’s also the unhappiest, watching his owner/general manager/media-obsessed circus ringmaster slow-play his payday while tossing out bizarre handshake-agreement negotiation tactics behind his agent's back.
Meanwhile, Carter’s in the door for five minutes and already making plays against Pro Bowl tackles, getting co-signed by one of the league’s best defenders, and adding a little extra juice to the NFC East arms race. If that’s not the perfect way to introduce yourself, I don’t know what is.
If the Cowboys do somehow manage to botch the Parsons situation any more than they already have — and history suggests that’s never off the table — imagine the feeding frenzy if he’s suddenly on the market.
And imagine Carter’s role in that sales pitch. The G-Men have needed true difference-makers on this team for years. It looks like they've already got one, and it just so happens he comes with a direct line to his buddy... who also just happens to be one of the best players in the league.
Thankfully, Jerry Jones isn’t on social media — either by choice or because someone finally staged an intervention — because Carter and Parsons are out here building an off-the-field rapport that’s only going to make their on-field connection that much stronger when Parsons is in Giants blue. The 26-year-old is practically begging to be a Giant at this point.
And if there’s one thing we can bank on, it’s Jerry eventually finding a way to blow up these extension talks so spectacularly that Parsons ends up falling right into New York's open arms to make that connection in the NFC East infinitely more dangerous for Dallas than it already is.