Perhaps the Cowboys are learning not to drag their feet when it comes to keeping key players.
As first reported by Jay Glazer of Fox and confirmed by others, the Cowboys have signed cornerback DaRon Bland to a four-year extension.
Bland, a fifth-round pick in 2022 from Fresno State, was entering the last year of his rookie contract. He was due to earn $5.346 million in 2025.
The four-year contract, via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, has a base value of $92 million. (We’ll get the full details.) If accurate, it’s a new-money average of $23 million. That would put him at No. 5 among all cornerbacks. The five-year total value from signing is $19.46 million.
Bland had an All-Pro season in 2023, with nine interceptions and an all-time record five pick-sixes. Of course, that may have had something to do with the guy the Cowboys opted to trade, not pay.
As former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said on Friday’s PFT Live, “If you look at all those interceptions that their DBs were making, [DaRon] Bland and [Trevon] Diggs and you’re intercepting them and running back for touchdowns . . . look what’s going on around the quarterback on those throws. Micah Parsons is the guy causing all the problems, and those guys are hard to come by.”
But, hey, maybe Bland will also be expected to help stop the run.
Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones remains committed to the bit.
On Thursday, he justified trading linebacker Micah Parsons by explaining that the Cowboys need to stop the run. On Saturday, he reiterated the position during an appearance on NFL Network.
“Our player that we got is outstanding,” Jones said regarding defensive lineman Kenny Clark, via Tommy Yarrish of DallasCowboys.com. “We knew that, and he’ll immediately start making plays for us here when we get up there against those Philadelphia Eagles. But the most important thing is we really wanted to stop the run. And Micah’s a wonderful football player. We think this gives us a better chance to stop the run. Other teams knew that, and they threw the ball out quick and they ran against us when we had Micah and they’re really emphasizing pass rush.”
Still, when it’s time to pass, Micah brings the heat.
“The most important player on a football team is the quarterback,” former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said on Friday’s PFT Live. “The second most important player on a football team is the guy who can negatively affect the quarterback. And those guys are hard to come by, and ever since that guy has come into the league, he has been a dominant player.”
So now the Cowboys will have to hope they can muster a potent pass rush without Parsons. If they can’t, they won’t have to worry about whether they can stop the run.
In the immediate aftermath of the Micah Parsons trade, the Cowboys held a press conference aimed at declaring victory. The real winners — the Packers and Parsons — didn’t feel compelled to say a word about it on Thursday.
Whether the Packers got the better of the deal remains to be seen. For now, it looks like the next in a line of rare but aggressive moves aimed at augmenting a high-end quarterback with a high-end defensive player. From Reggie White to Charles Woodson and now to Micah, the Packers don’t do it often. But when they do it, it tends to work.
It worked very well for Parsons, who gamed the current system in his favor. Which means that the system, in time, will probably change.
Here’s how the Micah Parsons project went.
First, he didn’t hold out. He showed up. He declined to practice. He created a series of distractions and challenges for the Cowboys.
Second, he didn’t cite his contract as the basis for his hold-in. If he had, at some point it would have had to end. Instead, he cited back tightness. It didn’t seem to be embellished, exaggerated, or fabricated.
Third, he didn’t blink. The Cowboys believed he’d eventually decide to play football, even at a fifth-year option salary far below the market as it existed before Micah blew the lid off of it. As Week 1 approached, it became obvious that Micah’s commitment to getting what he deserved would overcome his desire to play football.
Fourth, the Cowboys did blink. In lieu of sparking a showdown over whether Micah’s back was truly injured, they traded him at a time when they would have preferred to keep him for 2025 and to trade him after the season.
Parsons, when he did speak to reporters more than a day after the trade, provided an important P.S. to the process by saying, “Physically, I’m great.” That raised eyebrows in the media. It also has raised eyebrows around the league.
The recent misadventures of the NFL Players Association included a slam-dunk grievance arising from former NFLPA president, and former NFLPA chief strategy officer, suggesting that unhappy players should fake injuries. With Micah claiming he’s physically great two days after a report emerged that he’d be seeking a second opinion, it looks like Parsons incorporated Tretter’s advice and brilliantly navigated the current system to get what he wanted.
Which leads to an obvious conclusion. The league will likely try to change the system in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement.
In recent labor deals, the league has made it harder and harder to hold out. The 2020 CBA, which made it even harder to hold out, ushered in the age of the hold-in.
The next CBA will find a way to usher out the hold-in. Or the league will at least try to do that.
At the core, it’s about power. The NFL wants to keep it. The NFL doesn’t want the players to have it. Whether it’s through finagling fully-guaranteed contracts or through dictating which team they’ll play for or any other way to stand up to the system and win, the league wants to keep the teams in charge.
The hold-in process gives players who are willing to cite an injury (real or imagined) and not play real power. It ultimately gave Parsons the power to get out of Dallas.
Despite the spin from Jerry Jones that the trade makes the Cowboys better, they wanted to keep Parsons — at least for another season. Parsons stared them down. Parsons won.
The league will collectively attempt to ensure that doesn’t happen again, to the Cowboys or to any other team. Mark it down as one of the things the NFL will attempt to jam into the next labor deal.
Current Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer will never (at least while he still has that job) share his true thoughts on the decision to trade linebacker Micah Parsons to the Packers. Former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett had no qualms about sharing his unvarnished reaction to Thursday’s stunning move.
“I was shocked,” Garrett said on Friday’s PFT Live. “You know, the most important player on a football team is the quarterback. The second most important player on a football team is the guy who can negatively affect the quarterback. And those guys are hard to come by, and ever since that guy has come into the league, he has been a dominant player.
“And you and I have talked about this a lot, Mike — he’s transformative. He changes the whole team. If you think about the Cowboys in 2020, they were 6-10, they weren’t a very good team, and then he gets there along with defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, and all of a sudden, they’re a different team. And if you look at all those interceptions that their DBs were making, [DaRon] Bland and [Trevon] Diggs and you’re intercepting them and running back for touchdowns . . . look what’s going on around the quarterback on those throws.
“Micah Parsons is the guy causing all the problems, and those guys are hard to come by. If you think about, you know, four years, 52 sacks, he and Reggie White, being used in the same sentences. He’s an impactful player, and I was shocked that they let him out of the building.”
If you’ve watched the excellent Netflix docuseries on the Cowboys of the 1990s, it’s clear that the arrival of pass rusher Charles Haley changed everything. And, before Micah arrived, the Cowboys had been trying to find another Charles Haley.
They finally got one. They decided not to pay him. They decided to try to kick the can of his fifth-year option. They stepped on a rake instead, alienating the player and setting up a “hurt back” stare down that resulted in the Cowboys declaring victory and retreating.
The defense will retreat without him. The team will have a harder time succeeding. And the Packers will be the beneficiaries of that.
Packers quarterback Jordan Love appeared on Micah Parsons’ podcast during Super Bowl week and said he wanted Parsons to join him on the Packers. At the time, few thought that could happen.
Now that it has happened, Parsons was asked about Love’s recruiting him to Green Bay and said it wasn’t a serious discussion because at that time, Parsons thought he’d sign a long-term contract to remain in Dallas, and not get traded.
“I don’t think it was ever a serious conversation because I never thought I’d be traded, but that’s the harsh reality. Me and Jordan, we’re super close, having the same agent,” Parsons said. “We’ve got a very good relationship.”
Parsons was traded by the Cowboys for the Packers’ next two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark. That’s a win-now move by the Packers, and that’s what Parsons is in Green Bay to do.
“Winning means everything to me,” Parsons said. “I don’t think you’re going to find a more competitive person on the team or in the NFL.”
Micah Parsons wore No. 11 at Penn State, where he became a consensus All-American. He wore No. 11 with the Cowboys, where he made 52.5 sacks in four seasons.
Wide receiver Jayden Reed already had No. 11 in Green Bay, so Parsons will wear No. 1 after the trade from Dallas.
“I’m going with No. 1,” Parsons said Friday at his introductory news conference.
He will become the first Packers player to wear the number since Curly Lambeau in 1925 and 1926. The namesake of Green Bay’s stadium is the only player in franchise history to wear No. 1.
Parsons had polled his followers about whether he should choose No. 0 or No. 1, and he did not indicate why he had chosen No. 1.
Micah Parsons hasn’t practiced since last season. He will practice for the first time with his new team Monday.
The back tightness that the star edge rusher sometimes cited during his hold in for his reason not to practice disappeared in the trade to the Packers.
“Physically, I’m great,” Parsons said during his introductory news conference in Green Bay on Friday. “I think I can contribute a lot. I’m going to team up with the doctors and create a plan. We already talked about how we can ramp me up and get me in a flow where they feel comfortable and I feel comfortable.
“My plan is to be here. They didn’t give up what they gave up for me to sit on the sidelines.”
The Cowboys had Parsons undergo an MRI on his back which came up “pretty clean,” according to coach Brian Schottenheimer earlier this week. Schottenheimer said Tuesday that Parsons was cleared medically to practice “at this time.”
Parsons had his back examined by a back specialist this week ahead of the trade, reassuring the Packers. He passed his physical Friday and signed his contract, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history.
“He made me feel fairly confident that [the back tightness] is certainly not a long-term problem,” Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst said before Parsons’ physical was completed. “It’s something he’ll work through pretty quickly, we would think.”
The Packers are optimistic, despite Parsons’ lack of practice time and lack of knowledge of the team’s defense, that he will contribute in “some form or fashion” in the opener.
Micah Parsons was an hour late to his own news conference.
The star edge rusher had to pass his physical, sign his contract and meet some of his new co-workers. It’s a big day for Parsons and the Packers.
Parsons said he did not expect to be traded by Dallas but was happy to land in Green Bay.
“Honestly everything happens for a reason,” Parsons said Friday, via video from the team. “It’s a blessing in disguise. . . . I’m going to work hard every day to prove the Packers organization made the right decision in trusting in me. I’m going to carry that with me.”
Parsons said he had no say in where he landed after the Cowboys decided to trade him.
“I didn’t have any say,” Parsons said. “I would say I’m pretty lucky, because I understand the rich history of the Packers. The fact that they had interest in me and understanding that they had a pretty tough team already in the NFC, and I was pretty much geared up to play them looking for revenge. Now, I’m on the other side of adding to this rich history. I’m ready to play with these to suit up and play. I’m very excited.”
The trade, which sent Kenny Clark and two first-round picks to the Cowboys, was a win-win for the Packers and Parsons.
The Packers have acquired a generational pass rusher, who joined Reggie White as the only players ever to have 12 sacks in each of their first four NFL seasons. Parsons received his generational pay day, signing a four-year extension that has a five-year total base payout of $210.034 million, with up to $2 million in incentives/escalators.
Now, Parsons will try to do for the Packers what White did for the Packers four years after he signed with the team.
“Winning is everything to me,” Parsons said. “I don’t think you’re going to find a more competitive person. . . . So when you talk about winning on this stage and what it takes, I haven’t been there. I don’t know what it takes. But I’ve got a funny feeling that this program does. They went further than us, and obviously had a big win against us. I trust coach [Matt] LaFleur, and I really feel like we can do it. I really want to win real bad.”
Micah Parsons is now a Packer and there’s plenty of excitement to see what he can do in Green Bay, but there are a couple of obstacles for him to navigate with just over a week to go before the start of the regular season.
Parsons needs to pick up a new defense and he also hasn’t taken part in practice at all this summer with the Cowboys. While it seems unlikely that the back tightness he was dealing with in Dallas will be part of the conversation now that his contract has been addressed, Parsons will still need to get up to a speed in a way that protects against a more severe injury.
At a Friday press conference, Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst said Monday’s practice would start the process of figuring out what Parsons might be able to do against the Lions.
“We’ll have a chance to get him out there Monday and see where he’s at,” Gutekunst said. “Certainly I think we’re hopeful he’ll help us in some form or fashion in the opener. But I do think it’s on us to be smart and make sure that he’s ready to go.”
Parsons probably won’t have a full workload on September 7, but it seems like a good bet that Parsons will find a way onto the grass at Lambeau Field in his first game as a member of the team.
In the 1993 offseason, the Packers signed star edge rusher Reggie White to a four-year, $17 million contract. It changed the fortunes of the franchise.
The Packers won the Super Bowl in 1996.
In his six seasons with the Packers, White never had fewer than eight sacks and averaged 11.
The Packers’ trade for star edge rusher Micah Parsons has drawn comparisons, but White was 32 when he arrived in Green Bay. Parsons is 26.
General Manager Brian Gutekunst didn’t arrive in Green Bay until 1999, the year after White retired, but he was asked about the parallels between the team’s acquisitions of generational pass rushers three decades apart.
“I don’t think there’s really any parallels at all,” Gutekunst said Friday, via video from the team. “Again, I wasn’t here, so it’s hard for me really to compare that. A different time. I think the Packers organization was in a different space at that time. So, I can’t really comment on that.
“Micah’s his own man, and he’s going to forge his own path here. But I think he’s going to be a really, really good fit for our locker room, a really good fit for our team. But, yeah, that was a little before me.”
Parsons could be the missing piece for the Packers, though, as White was. They are the only players in NFL history to have at least 12 sacks in each of their first four seasons.
The Packers sent defensive tackle Kenny Clark and two first-round picks to the Cowboys for Parsons.
“Obviously a player like Micah, he’s very unique and very rare is it that they’re available,” Gutekunst said. “So as this kind of came together, it was just one of those things where it was a unique opportunity to it. It was going to cost. There was going to be some expense to it. But we just kind of thought it was the best thing for our team. We’re excited to get him. We’re excited to get him out there and get him with our team, so he can get up to speed as fast as possible.”
