Well…
As I am sure you already know, the Dallas Cowboys have tanked their 2025 season by trading away their best player to the Green Bay Packers.
There are just so many things to unpack here that I am unlikely to do them all justice.
I will write a more complete article when I have processed it all but here are my initial thoughts in the immediate aftermath of this seismic trade.
The bully does not win
In short, the owner and General Manager of the Dallas Cowboys tried to take advantage of his star player, by holding him to the terms of a contract discussed in an informal conversation without the players agent present.
Jerry Jones tried to play this off as an old-school way of doing business and a ‘handshake agreement’ is binding.
Times have moved on and Jones has not. Ultimately, it has cost Jones his best player.
Happy for Micah
Parsons deserves better than the Cowboys and he will get that with the Green Bay Packers.
Parsons is earning a cool $47 million a season and has elevated a young team loaded with talent to serious Super Bowl contenders for the foreseeable future.
I am glad Parsons has his money, and I am sure he will get a Super Bowl ring to go with it in the next few years.
Fleeced in the trade
If we were going to trade Parsons, then it should have been for a huge haul.
The Khalil Mack trade to the Bears should have been the minimum the Cowboys got. Instead, they got defensive tackle Kenny Clark to go with two first-round picks.
Clark will turn 30 during this season and is coming off a down year. He may be able to give some immediate help to a poor Cowboys run defense, but I cannot see Clark producing beyond 2025.
The two first-round picks are likely to be in the late 20s at best in the draft, given the Packers; expected performance now that they have acquired Parsons.
There will not be a player at any position that comes out of College Football in the next two drafts who is close to being as good as Micah Parsons.
Is this a full rebuild?
If this is a decision to head for a rebuild, they have gone the wrong way about it.
Inevitably, Jerry Jones is going to try and spin this into comparing it to the Herschel Walker trade from 1989. That enabled the Cowboys to collect the draft picks that led to the dynasty of the 1990s.
The recent history of Cowboys draft classes has been fantastic. However, this strength has started to wane in the last couple of years.
I do not believe the Cowboys will maximise four first-round draft picks over the next two drafts. I have an even bigger fear they will waste some of those picks making a rash trade in the next few weeks.
Why Green Bay?
I am sure we will get the explanation that the Cowboys loved Kenny Clark and as a multiple time Pro Bowler, he will give immediate help to an area of need.
The Cowboys trading their best player, in-conference and to a team they already have issues beating in both the regular season and playoffs, is ludicrous.
I understand teams that could pay Parsons the contract he was after were few and far between. But surely, they could have traded him to a team in the AFC?
Spare a though for the coaches!
Brian Schottenheimer is a first-time head coach, and he has just had his best player, and the leader of an already struggling defense, taken away from him.
It is hard enough to be the Dallas Cowboys Head Coach without these limitations.
Poor Matt Eberflus, the new Defensive Coordinator. I have no doubt a lot of his plans to turn this defense around were geared towards getting the most out of one of the NFL’s best pass rushers.
Now, with just seven days’ notice, the Cowboys need to change game plans heading to the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles. Good luck with that.
Future negotiations
Multiple Dallas Cowboys players, including George Pickens, are with the same agency that Jerry Jones refused to even talk to during this contract saga.
How are you supposed to get deals done for those other players having acted the way you just have with the Parsons situation?
These may have been the ramblings of a madman, but it is late and I am incredibly sad that Micah Parsons has left.
Fear not though, as I will get to see Parsons in Week 4 as the Packers come to play the Cowboys in Dallas on Sunday Night Football.
Just one ask please Micah: try not to injure Dak!
