On Thursday evening it was all over. Micah Parsons, the best Cowboys pass rusher in over a decade was unceremoniously jettisoned from the franchise, shipped to the Packers for two first round picks and DT Kenny Clark. It simultaneously ended the drama that had lasted all summer, while also vaulting the Packers into being a favorite to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
Parsons is not a normal player. In four seasons he’s recorded 52.5 sacks, been named to the All-Pro team three times, and received votes for defensive player of the year every single season he’s been in the league. At 26-years-old he should have been a Cowboys lifer — instead, hubris and nonsensical penny pinching won the day.
This is more than simply trading away a great player. This was Jerry Jones and the Cowboys giving into their worst base instincts, which stuck to the misguided belief that the allure of the playing for the blue and silver was the kind of honor that supplants money, respect, and decency. Dallas didn’t just trade it’s best pass rusher on Thursday, but shipped off the hopes for an expedient rebuild as well.
There is nobody who loves the Cowboys like Jerry Jones, of that there’s no question. You might truly loathe the man, but his undying love for his football team is like nothing else in the NFL. That’s largely because Jones has inextricably linked his ego with that of the team he owns. His pride is woven into the fabric of the organization. When they fail, he fails. When they soar, so does Jerry.
It’s been this way since he took ownership of the team in 1989, and soared during the Cowboys’ zenith in the 90s. For 30 years he’s been chasing that feeling again, and addict for the fortune and attention the team brings. That has bred the worst habits in the franchise. When the team is struggling he’s quick to jettison players and make changes, and when they’re only slightly good he’s held onto people for too long — terrified his beloved team might drift back into football obscurity.
What we learned through this process with Parsons is the amount of immense damage Jones is doing when it comes to creating a football team. This is a man who publicly aired his grievances, circumvented Parsons’ agent in the hopes of pressuring him to agree to a below-market deal, and when questioned on his tactics he wistfully looked back at a time he could “make a deal with a handshake,” criticizing the modern sports landscape in the process.
As much as Jerry might hate it, the genie isn’t going back in the bottle. Professional sports will never return to the time Jones is nostalgic for. In the modern NFL you have to play nice with agents, because of the ripple effect it can have on a team’s future chances. Disrespecting agent David Mulugheta, has repercussions beyond Parsons. Athlete’s First, Mulugheta’s agency, is one of the biggest in the NFL, representing 58 players — and some of the biggest names in the sport like Jordan Love, Derek Stingley Jr, and Calvin Ridley. When you take a shot at an agency like Jones did it doesn’t just sour one business on you, it sours an industry on you — once which the Cowboys are inherently reliant on to do future deals. It gives the Cowboys a reputation as difficult to deal with, and agents are some of the most influential people in the NFL because they advise clients on which teams to consider, and which to cast to the side.
Jerry’s misguided belief is that everyone in football wants to come to Dallas. To him, there is no bigger honor than playing for the Cowboys. In reality the mystique is gone. The Cowboys have precisely the same amount of allure as the Chicago Bulls in the NBA, another dominant mid-90s franchise which has struggled since then. Just as the Bulls can’t land top free agents, so too does Dallas — and that doesn’t get easier when your owner has left a bad taste in the mouth of influencers pulling strings behind the scenes.
When it came time to do the bare minimum, the smallest amount of effort, to eat the tiniest bit of humble pie and thank Parsons for his time in Dallas, Jerry instead chose to take a veiled shot at the superstar pass rusher.
Sure, nobody mistakes Parsons for being an elite run stopper at the edge — but who the hell cares when you’re one of the best pure pass rushers in the NFL? That’s like criticizing Saquon Barkley for rushing for 2,000 yards, but wanting more out of him as a backfield receiver.
Linking Parsons directly to the Cowboys’ run stopping woes was by design. It was dedicated to downplay his significance, and tell fans “he was overrated anyway” in an effort to downplay what a monumental screwup this was. The grave sin wasn’t trading away Parsons, as it was always going to be difficult to justify keeping Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, AND Micah Parsons when all three are some of the highest-paid players at their positions, it was assuming he could bend Parsons to his will over the course of the summer instead of shopping him prior to the 2025 NFL Draft.
Had Parsons been on the trading block in April there’s no telling what the team would have gotten. Could they have gotten the No. 4 overall pick from the Patriots? Possibly. Heck, perhaps the Browns at No. 2 think the possibility of pairing Parsons with Myles Garrett is a once-in-a-generation move and they make the deal. Instead they’ve now dealt him inside the NFC, and to a team who’s already a playoff staple. With Parsons there’s a very real chance those two 1st rounders fall anywhere from No. 25 to No. 32, where getting a player of Parsons’ caliber is pure luck, rather than innate skill.
One of the bad justifications I’ve seen for the Parsons trade is “at least it expedites a rebuild,” but — no it doesn’t. A rebuild requires two things: Draft capital and cap space, with Dallas possessing only of those qualities. It’s disjointed to try and rebuild now, with Prescott and Lamb under huge extensions. Moreover the Cowboys are already projected to be $23M OVER the salary cap in 2026 with only 40 players under contract. It’s going to require more penny pinching, more restructuring, and praying you can find valuable contributors in free agency on the cheap. Guess what all those prospective players have? Agents — and Jones ensured the industry doesn’t trust him.
With Micah Parsons there was a shot Dallas could be competitive in 2025. Without him the defense is nothing. There’s ostensibly no pass rushers on the roster worth a damn, and a bad season will only feed Jerry’s bad urges more, to drop players, retool, and hope-against-hope this team can return to its 90s glory.
Unfortunately the reality is that Dallas is much, much closer to bottoming out like the Saints than getting close to their former dominance.
