One of the biggest NFL trades in recent memory has ample fallout in the NFC and creates even more questions in Dallas.
Just when you thought Micah Parsons was going to become the latest Dallas Cowboys star to take the scenic route – literally and figuratively – to another to a nine-figure extension …
Just when you thought Dallas owner Jerry Jones was going to take another bath by losing a negotiation to one of his premier players …
Just when you thought the latest NFL superstar to follow the hold out, hold in, I’m hurt, trade me, now just pay me playbook to riches would get his bag …
Just when you assumed all that was unfolding as it so often has in so many NFL quarters − but particularly in North Texas − Jones and “America’s Team” ship Parsons to the Green Bay Packers, a team much of America actually loves and has been typically relevant over the past 30 years.
Hoo ‘Boys!
Naturally, a deal of this magnitude immediately lends itself to dissection and declarations of who won and lost – so let’s get to it:
WINNERS
Micah Parsons
As he waited and waited in Frisco, Texas, and Oxnard, California, he eventually grew so disillusioned with Jones and his typically polarizing negotiating rhetoric, that he wanted out and went public with a trade demand. Amazingly, Parsons not only got his wish, he was transferred to a better team, and, per reports, reeled in a record-setting four-year, $188 million contract with $136 million guaranteed. Now set up to make $47 million per year, Parsons not only reset the contractual scale for non-quarterbacks by orders of magnitude, at 26 years old, he’s nicely set up to get to a third massive contact if his highly productive career arc (52½ sacks in 63 regular-season games) generally remains on its current heading.
David Mulugheta
Amazing what a good agent can do for a player when NFL teams actually invite him into the process.
Green Bay Packers
USA TODAY Sports had already projected them as the 2025 NFC champions – look at me! – and their Super Bowl odds will only substantially shorten from here. By virtue of their stability and the draft-and-develop approach GM Brian Gutekunst and coach Matt LaFleur generally embrace, Green Bay had already enjoyed the least disruptive offseason of any team in the NFC North. But Parsons’ arrival will certainly further disrupt the opponents of a team that finished tied for eighth in the league last season with 45 sacks.
Aidan Hutchinson
The Detroit Lions star is likely going to be the next pass rusher to get paid. He almost certainly won't pull down $47 million per, but Parsons’ big deal should only help Hutchinson’s cause whenever he bellies up to the table.
Trey Hendrickson
The Cincinnati Bengals star – set to make a mere $30 million or so in 2025 – also stands to benefit from Parsons’ windfall. Hendrickson would get at least a $36 million franchise tag in 2026 if Cincy goes that route, though that number could also rise as the pass-rushing pay scale continues to explode, Parsons taking it to another level. Barring that, Hendrickson will almost certainly command $40+ million per year from whichever team signs him next March.
Philadelphia Eagles
That regular-season kickoff game against the Cowboys next Thursday night is starting to look like little more than a speed bump for the reigning Super Bowl champions, who now appear to have only one legitimate challenger (Washington) in the NFC East. No team has won the division in consecutive seasons since the Eagles sat on its summit from 2001 to ’04 − but even harder to bet against them breaking that hex now.
NBC
Packers at Cowboys, Sept. 28, “Sunday Night Football.” Legit chance it’s the highest-rated regular-season game of all time given this subplot added to what was already a matchup of two of the country’s most popular clubs.
LOSERS
Jerry Jones
Sure, getting two first-round picks and a front-line player like Pro Bowl defensive lineman like Kenny Clark is hardly nothing. And the Cowboys will also have much more salary cap in future years to import and pay other players now that Parsons won’t take up a significant chunk of it, as QB Dak Prescott and WR CeeDee Lamb already do.
But, man. Jones just about literally drove his best player away, and that also sends a bad message to the guys currently in the locker room as well as the ones who might consider coming into it. And given his summer shenanigans led to this outcome, hard to believe that fans won’t continue calling for Jones to relinquish his de facto general manager duties ... not that he'll listen. And, heck, if players like Laremy Tunsil and Jamal Adams have fetched two first-rounders in trades in recent years, did Jones really get the maximum return for a player who could wind up as a generational pass rusher? It’s quite feasible whatever shape the trio of Clark and his two future teammates takes, they won’t actually fill the void left by Parsons, either from a production or public relations standpoint.
Recently paid pass rushers
The Steelers’ T.J. Watt, Browns’ Myles Garrett, Texans’ Danielle Hunter and Raiders’ Maxx Crosby all signed extensions this offseason averaging at least $35 million – at least $40 million per in the cases of Watt and Garrett. Oops?
Kenny Clark
He quietly gave the Packers nine really good seasons, and his 10th teemed with possibilities – until … Sorry, dude.
Brian Schottenheimer
Being a rookie head coach is tough enough without losing your best player a week before your inaugural season starts. But while expectations are usually outsized around the Cowboys, maybe Schottenheimer, 51, at least enjoys a more measured grace period as Dallas clearly veers into something more adjacent to a rebuild and retool mode.
Dallas fans
First Luka, then Micah. But, hey, the Mavericks wound up with Cooper Flagg, y’all − maybe the NFL script now delivers Arch Manning to the Cowboys atop next year’s draft? Right?
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Micah Parsons trade winners, losers: Bad deal for Cowboys, Jerry Jones
Category: Football
