After the Cowboys traded Micah Parsons to the Packers, owner Jerry Jones said it was a unanimous decision that included players on the team’s leadership council, which includes quarterback Dak Prescott.
Cornerback Trevon Diggs defended his best friend and former teammate Monday, denying any current players were unhappy with Parsons or wanted him gone.
“I think everyone liked him,” Diggs said, via Clarence Hill of All City DLLS. “I feel like there were some former players who are not here no more. There was a lot of, I would say, hate, jealousy, envy towards him because of who he is and the production he does on the field. Imagine if you come in here and you’re take somebody’s shine or taking somebody’s spot, you’re not gonna like that. They’re gonna feel a type of way, especially if you’re that type of person. Me personally, I never got no bad anything from him, like, ever, ever since he stepped foot on the team.”
It is well documented that Parsons and former defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence had a beef. Lawrence criticized Parsons after he signed with the Seahawks, setting off a public fight on social media.
Parsons’ podcast, “The Edge with Micah Parsons,” has been a source of contention with others on the team. A year ago, safety Malik Hooker, who remains with the Cowboys, questioned Parsons’ priorities because of his podcast, prompting Parsons to respond on social media.
“I guess his personality and who he is, he knows he’s a great player,” Diggs said. “He knows he’s good; he knows who he is. So, a lot of people don’t like that. So that could’ve been different. But when we’re in the locker, everyone’s joking; everyone’s laughing; everyone’s smiling; everyone’s happy. So I don’t know where those narratives came from. From my standpoint, he’s a great kid. He takes care of his family, takes care of his responsibilities on the field, and off the field, so he can’t do no wrong in my eyes.”
The contract negotiations between the Cowboys and former linebacker Micah Parsons weren’t simply about paying Micah. They were about the number of years the Cowboys would be paying him.
The Cowboys believed Micah had verbally agreed to a five-year, $202.5 million extension. Parsons held firm at a four-year extension.
Ultimately, Parsons got a four-year extension from the Packers. Which will put him in line for another major contract at least one year sooner. If, of course, he keeps playing at a high level.
As one source estimates it, the recent spike in the edge rusher market (it’s gone up by $13 million this offseason alone) could translate to an extra $65 million or $70 million, thanks to the fact that he’s under contract through 2029 and not through 2030.
Of course, Parsons needs to play at a high level to get another market-level contract. If he doesn’t, the Packers will tear up the contract before 2029 anyway. If he does, they may replace the contract with something closer to the current market in 2029 — or maybe even in 2028.
Micah Parsons practiced with his new teammates Monday. It was his first practice since the end of last season.
The star edge rusher reportedly has a facet joint sprain located in the L4/L5 vertebrae of his back and could require an epidural to play Sunday. Packers offensive tackle Rasheed Walker, Parsons’ college teammate, said Parsons took some 11-on-11 reps Monday but looked to be a limited participant.
“He said he was going to be more full-go Wednesday and Thursday,” Walker said, via Matt Schneidman of TheAthletic.com.
After the trade for Parsons on Thursday, Walker posted on social media that the Packers are going to win the Super Bowl.
“Oh, yeah, for sure,” Walker said Monday, via Bill Huber of SI.com. “I think it upped our chances by a lot. We got a solid pass rush across the whole line. I don’t think no one’s going to be able to throw the ball like that on us. It’s going to open up opportunities for our DBs and our offense, so, yeah, I feel like Micah’s going to have a good presence on the field and it’s going to really be advantageous to us.”
The Packers defensive players expect their unit to benefit greatly from Parsons’ presence after he averaged 13 sacks in his four seasons in Dallas. Linebacker Edgerrin Cooper said Parsons is going to give opposing offenses “nightmares.”
“It’s scary. It’s for sure scary with the pieces that we have,” defensive end Rashan Gary added. ‘The guys that we have, especially with the mindsets we all have. Especially talking to him today, we’re kind of similar persons in terms of mindset. So, it’s going to be scary for teams, for sure.”
Micah Parsons passed his physical with the Packers after last week’s trade with the Cowboys, but he reportedly hasn’t put the back issue that he was dealing with in Dallas in the rearview mirror just yet.
According to multiple reports, Parsons has a facet joint sprain. The sprain is located in his L4/L5 vertebrae.
Parsons took part in Monday’s practice despite the sprain, which would seem to be a good sign of his chances of playing against the Lions on Sunday. Those reports indicate that he may receive an epidural injection in order to make his Packers debut.
More information about the state of Parsons’s back and the chances that he’ll be compromised in any way on the field could come to light in the next few days. As long as he continues practicing, though, it seems like he’ll be on the field one way or another in Week 1.
Micah Parsons is officially back to football activities.
Via multiple reporters on the scene, Parsons is participating in practice with the Packers on Monday.
This is the first time all summer that Parsons has participated in practice. Before he was traded to Green Bay, Parsons had noted he was experiencing back tightness while with Dallas.
The Packers have been planning a ramp-up period for Parsons. But his participation in practice on Monday is a positive sign for his potential availability in Week 1.
Green Bay will host Detroit on Sunday afternoon, with Parsons now seemingly on track to make his debut with his new team. For his part, Lions head coach Dan Campbell seems to be expecting Parsons to play.
In 13 games last season, Parsons recorded 12.0 sacks with 12 tackles for loss and 23 quarterback hits.
Micah Parsons is now a member of the Packers.
That’s going to change some things for Green Bay’s Week 1 opponent, Detroit.
The Lions aren’t unfamiliar with Parsons, having gone against him in 2022 and 2023. Asked about Parsons’ presence on Monday, head coach Dan Campbell told reporters Detroit is still coming up with its gameplan.
“I don’t know how much it’ll change necessarily yet,” Campbell said in his press conference. “I mean, we’re not even into third down, so we’ll get more into that in the next couple of days. But certainly, we’ll have our eyes on that.
“We know what kind of player he is. He’s a really good player. But we’ll have a plan.”
Parsons had a pair of sacks and a forced fumble in Dallas’ 24-6 win over Detroit in 2022. Then in 2023, Parsons recorded six tackles with two for loss and two QB hits in the Cowboys’ 20-19 victory late in the 2023 regular season.
The additions of Parsons has raised Green Bay’s odds for an NFC North title in 2025. But even after winning the last two division championships, Campbell said he’s not using that as bulletin board material — at least not yet.
“We haven’t talked about any of that. Vegas has done what again? OK. Yeah. It’s all good. To each their own,” Campbell said. “We just kind of hit a little intro to their personnel, some of the things we know we’re going to like. There will be a lot more of it tomorrow. Today is just Step 1.
“Look, they’ve got a good roster. They’ve got good coaches over there — competitive every year. This division is tough, as we’ve said. But we wouldn’t want it any other way. This is why you do it. You love this stuff, man. The competition that’s involved in it, Game 1, out at Lambeau [Field], love Lambeau, division game — the whole deal. So, we’re going to be looking forward to it.”
The Dallas Cowboys are no longer America’s Team. There’s a chance they aren’t even Texas’s team.
Three years ago, the Houston Texans had a very similar situation to the one the Cowboys just resolved. Quarterback Deshaun Watson had requested a trade. He had sat out an entire season, with pay. He had more than 20 civil lawsuits pending.
Texans G.M. Nick Caserio worked the situation masterfully, creating a four-team competition between the Saints, Panthers, Falcons, and Browns that allowed Caserio to name his price to each of them before they were allowed to even talk to Watson.
The Cowboys could have done the same thing with linebacker Micah Parsons. But, as they often do, they waited too long to make a decision.
More broadly, the Cowboys all too often seem to lack clear strategic vision. But, hey, that’s what happens when the General Manager never should have been the General Manager in the first place.
Yes, the owner has the ability to give himself any job he wants. And, when Jerry Jones bought the team in 1989, he gave himself Tex Schramm’s job.
Jones had no objective qualifications for Tex Schramm’s job. And here’s the biggest irony about the state of the team, nearly four full decades into Jerry’s run as G.M. While the front office under Jones has done a very good job of drafting and developing talent, they’ve mismanaged the one thing Jerry brought to the table when he bought the team — knowing when and how to do good deals.
They built their team that won three Super Bowls in four years before the salary cap era began. Even since the spending limit was put in place, they’ve bungled big deals. They’ve waited too long to get guys extended. They’ve extended some of the wrong guys.
Most recently, they blew the ideal window to get the most for Parsons.
It’s a simple proposition. If they were going to trade Parsons, they should have made it known in early March that he would be available. Before teams spent their cash and cap allocations for 2025. Before they signed, or re-signed, pass rushers in free agency. Before they drafted young pass rushers.
On Thursday night, Jones admitted that he was thinking about trading Parsons months ago.
“This trade was not just thought about today,” Jones told reporters. “This trade has been going on in our minds and our strategies and being talked about — it’s been going on all spring. It culminated today and it came quick, but that’s the way things go.”
Did they have trade talks before the draft?
“We had them,” Jones said. “But we didn’t have them with anybody else.”
They should have. If they had, they would have gotten more.
Jones could brush that off as pure speculation. It’s more accurate to call it fact. More teams would have had the cap space in March. More teams would have had interest in March. More teams would have come to the table in March.
If Jones had handled it the right way, it would have unfolded as another Deshaun Watson-style competition. While it’s hard to imagine Parsons getting more than the compensation package he received from the Packers, the Cowboys would have gotten more than a 2026 and 2027 first-round pick and a soon-to-be 30-year-old defensive tackle who has made the Pro Bowl three times in nine seasons.
Beyond the volume of picks, the Cowboys would have acquired selections that could have been used in 2025. As explained last week, they could have emerged with someone like Travis Hunter or Abdul Carter. And they could have gotten more than that.
As it stands, they got a player whose prime will soon be ending (if it hasn’t already), a pair of future first-round picks that likely will land late in the round, and the cash and cap space saved by not paying a player who deserved a giant pile of both.
No, the Cowboys will never admit that they made a mistake. At some level, they know. They screwed this one up, in multiple ways. Above all else, they waited too long to make Micah available.
If they’d done it in March, they would have gotten more.
Maybe, in hindsight, they should have hired Nick Caserio to be the G.M. before the Texans did.
The Eagles will be opening the season against the Cowboys at home on Thursday night and their preparation for the game took a turn late last week.
Dallas traded defensive end Micah Parsons to the Packers for two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark, which brought an end to a protracted contract impasse and left a very different looking Cowboys defense for the Eagles to face in their opener. On Sunday, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said the team isn’t spending as much time thinking about players who won’t be on the field as they are on Clark and others who will be trying to stop their defense.
“We have so much going on here,” Sirianni said, via a transcript from the team. “We’re getting ready to play the Cowboys, so he’s in your thoughts for game planning, but they still have guys that we have to prepare for. They have Kenny Clark, who’s a really good player, and they have good depth at that defensive end group. You don’t get too wrapped up in that except for some of the things you’re doing with the game plan. But, also understanding that they have a lot of good players over there and getting ready for those guys and shifting your attention to that.”
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said last week that a desire to upgrade the team’s run defense was a factor in the Parsons trade. With Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts still around for the Eagles, Thursday will provide an early chance for the Cowboys to show they’ve improved in that area.
The short-term third-party beneficiaries of the Micah Parsons trade were the Eagles. They’ll no longer have to face him, twice per year. More immediately, they’ll avoid him in the Week 1 opener.
Via Todd Archer of ESPN.com, Philly tackle Jordan Mailata called the news a “sigh of relief.”
“It’s just kind of crazy,” Mailata said. “The last four or five years we’ve played the Dallas Cowboys, we’ve come up with a game plan [for him] because Micah’s a game wrecker. . . . However, that is a talented D-line and a talented defense, so you have to treat them with the same respect with or without Micah Parsons.”
It meshes with key insights from former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett on Friday’s PFT Live. Teams need to have a plan for Parsons. They need to know where he is on every play, and they need to know how they’re going to stop him. Or at least how they’ll try.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni kept his cards a little closer to the vest when asked right out of the gates about the Parsons trade
“We have so much going on here,” Sirianni said, via quotes distributed by the team. “We’re getting ready to play the Cowboys, so he’s in your thoughts for game planning, but they still have guys that we have to prepare for. They have Kenny Clark, who’s a really good player, and they have good depth at that defensive end group. You don’t get too wrapped up in that except for some of the things you’re doing with the game plan. But, also understanding that they have a lot of good players over there and getting ready for those guys and shifting your attention to that.”
While the Eagles have avoided Parsons for now, they’ll see him in Week 10, on Monday Night Football from Lambeau Field. And, frankly, his presence on the Packers could be more detrimental to the Eagles getting back to the Super Bowl.
The Eagles were already objectively better than the Cowboys. The Packers gave the Eagles a pretty tough contest in the 2024 wild-card round. If they meet in the postseason again, Micah could end up being the difference-maker.
Earlier this month, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said of Micah Parsons, “11 is a Cowboy.”
Now? Not.
“I can’t say I was completely surprised, but I definitely didn’t think he was going to get traded,” Prescott told reporters on Sunday regarding the Parsons trade, via Ali Jawad of ALLDLLS.com. “Just with the way our negotiations went down, and to some extent it seemed like it got personal on their end. So, that’s why I wasn’t surprised.”
Prescott stopped short of parroting the party line that Parsons being gone could make the Cowboys better.
“I’m not going to say we’re better,” Prescott said, via Todd Archer of ESPN.com. “We’ve got to go out there and prove it. We had to prove it even if he was on this team, so I’m not going to say that by any means.”
Prescott then added something that underscores the perception (as mentioned by former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett on Friday’s PFT Live) that Parsons possibly wasn’t the leader the Cowboys needed him to be.
“I know what adding a guy like Kenny Clark, adding a true leader, a real man that’s going to only elevate this team, who’s been a Pro Bowl player and is excited about being here [means],” Prescott said, per Archer.
We don’t want to read too much into that quote. But the words can’t be ignored. The situation got to the point that Parsons didn’t want to be in Dallas. And it appeared that he’d rely on his back injury to justify not playing, until he got the trade he wanted.
Either way, it’s done. And, with Parsons now on the Packers, a reunion is looming quickly.
“He got paid very well and great for him and his family,” Prescott said. “And we’ll see him here in about a month.”
Four weeks, to be precise. On Sunday Night Football on NBC and Peacock.
