Micah Parsons trade: Biggest winners/losers from blockbuster Cowboys-Packers deal – Kevin Patra, NFL.com
The fans are among the collateral damage from the trade.
LOSERS
Cowboys fans: It’s been 30 years since their last Lombardi Trophy run. That streak feels likely to hit 31. Thursday’s news is a turd-in-the-punchbowl moment for Cowboys fans who have been sipping sour Kool-Aid for years. Dallas fanatics have endured a glut of annoying contract standoffs that could have been avoided but ultimately bore fruit. The Parsons negotiations seemed to be playing out similarly until the gut-punch trade. Even the most optimistic Cowboys fans will have a hard time convincing themselves that they can compete in 2025 sans their defensive superstar. Clark addresses a longtime need at defensive tackle, but draft picks can’t help right now. Then those fanatical supporters have to hope the organization hits on those picks, which are likely to be near the end of the round. Can’t have another Taco Charlton misstep.
Jerry Jones the GM: The entire unraveling of the contract situation doesn’t leave the general manager in a good light. The issues Parsons relayed about his agent being iced out of talks isn’t a good look for the man in charge of personnel. Then there is the issue that the GM’s club is undoubtedly worse heading into a season. The Cowboys’ entire defense revolved around Parsons’ ability to pester the quarterback. Now they’re left with a massive hole. Donovan Ezeiruaku flashed at camp, but does anyone really believe the second-round pick can fill those shoes? GMs constantly tell us that their job is to give the coaches the best 53 they can each year. It’s hard to say the Cowboys have done that after trading Parsons.
Matt Eberflus Cowboys DC: It’s a bummer for Eberflus. After bottoming out in Chicago, he landed on his feet in Dallas, hoping for a swift turnaround. Instead of scheming up ways to get Parsons loose on opposing quarterbacks, he’ll be going after it with … Dante Fowler Jr.? The defensive front was far from sturdy last year, and there were already questions in the secondary, thanks in part to injuries. While the addition of Clark helps, Parsons’ absence will only magnify those issues. He wasn’t up to snuff as a head man, but Eberflus can coach up a defense. Having to do so without a game-changer like Parsons, however, will make life significantly harder.
Jerry Jones during press conference says Cowboys might be better after Parsons trade – Chris Bumbaca, USA Today
The ‘stop the run’ justification for trading Micah Parsons feels dubious.
To start the news conference, Jones spent plenty of time talking about run defense.
”Without being too broad, we did think it was in the best interest for our organization, not only in the future but right now, for this season,” Jones said. “We gained a Pro Bowl player in an area that we had big concerns in, on the inside of our defense.
“The facts are, specifically, we need to stop the run. We haven’t been able to stop the run in key times for several years.”
The pass-rushing depth, per Jones, was why comfortable moving on and that adding Clark would overall improve the defense – even with the loss of Parsons.
“It was a prerequisite, and we only picked teams … that could pay Micah and had top (defensive) tackles,” Jones admitted.
“In addition to the depth, you could scheme pressure as well,” Stephen Jones, the team’s chief operating officer, said. “…But what is tough to scheme, is stopping the run.”
[…]
“This gives us a better chance to be a better team than we have been the last several years while Micah has been here,” Jones told reporters. “Nothing negative on Micah.
“We can win more games than we would have, had we gone the other route and signed Micah.”
Some of the grades for the trade. It’s ugly.
Joe Hoyt
Micah Parsons is one of the most valuable players in the NFL. Losing him is a blow the Cowboys will deal with for years to come. But, hey, 29-year-old Kenny Clark should fill a need in the short term.
Grade: D
Kevin Sherrington
The Cowboys traded a generational player to a team that will now move up in class because of it, meaning those two first-round picks are closer to second-rounders. Kenny Clark better be really good.
Grade: F
Calvin Watkins
You just don’t trade talented players away. It’s nice that you got two first-round picks and a defensive tackle with three years left on his deal, but you weaken the defense with Parsons gone. And that doesn’t make sense.
Grade: D
IMPACT: Micah trade from Cowboys to Packers generates shockwaves – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com
There is a player coming back the other way from Green Bay.
First things first, and that’s the fact there is a player included in the package of two first-round picks, one for 2026 and another in 2027, as defensive tackle Kenny Clark heads to Dallas, he does so for a team in dire need of solving the equation at nose tackle. What’s unfortunate for Clark is the simple fact anything short of a Hall of Fame stint with the Cowboys will be viewed outside of the building as insufficient simply because he is tied to the Parsons trade.
That notwithstanding, Clark does upgrade the 1-tech position.
As a quick but related aside, the two first-round picks may or may not work in the Cowboys’ favor, because the Packers, who were already contenders and walked all over Dallas at AT&T Stadium in a postseason humiliation, are now objectively better on paper and that means the 2026 first-round pick could very well end up being later on Day 1 — effectively making it more of a second-rounder.
If the Cowboys want a high pick on Day 1 in either of the two years to come, they’ll need the Packers to somehow implode.
Now, back to Clark.
A former first-round pick of the Packers in 2016, Clark has since earned three Pro Bowl nods, as recently as 2023, and has a whopping 126 starts and 140 overall games under his belt — only one year removed from racking up 7.5 sacks (career high) and 44 combined tackles with nine tackles for loss (career high), three pass deflections (t-career high), two forced fumbles (t-career high) and two fumble recoveries (t-career high) through 17 starts.
Also highly durable, Clark has missed only eight games in his entire nine-year NFL career, and the Cowboys now control his rights through the 2027 season, his cap hit for 2025 being just $3 million before ballooning to $21.5 million in 2026 — though the Cowboys can avoid that with a restructure and instead save $9.6 million with that trigger pull.
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