The Dallas Cowboys traded away Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday. All they received in return was Kenny Clark and two-first round draft picks. It is not an exaggeration to say they look like the losers of the trade.
That the compensation is so low is part of what makes this a tough situation for the Cowboys. We can debate about what may have gone into that – the negotiation ability of the Cowboys and Packers, etc. etc. – but there is no doubt about the following reality.
The Dallas Cowboys traded Micah Parsons in the most inefficient manner possible.
So many people spoke about leverage for Dallas with Parsons in that they could have placed the franchise tag on him in back-to-back seasons. That may have been objectively true, but the Cowboys burned up all benefit in terms of negotiating power against a trade candidate, not Parsons.
By waiting until the literal final week before the regular season begins the Cowboys put all would-be trade candidates in a bind. The Packers wound up being the team to do the deal, but it is hard for the Packers to objectively trust a player that hasn’t been in their building since March. What’s more (and the main point here) is that the Packers had to give Parsons the massive deal that he was seeking.
If the Cowboys wanted to trade Micah Parsons then they should have made the determination that such a move was necessary long ago. The Cowboys could have dealt him at the beginning of this offseason and if they had then they would have had a larger leg to stand on from a negotiation standpoint. What’s more is the Cowboys could have actually utilized the draft compensation they would have received immediately instead of having to wait. And on top of that they would have gotten compensation that Parsons couldn’t have impacted by making Green Bay a better team and worsening their draft position.
Feel what you want to feel about the Parsons trade. Be for or against it. But the fact that the Cowboys did it the way that they did is representative of their biggest issue – delaying all important things.
This same principle is/was true with Dak Prescott last year, by the way. By giving Dak the deal that they did on quite literally the day that the season began they also handled that in the most inefficient manner possible.
Nothing was gained from Dallas by waiting this trade out. All they did was compromise their position against the Packers and paid the price by not getting more compensation as a result of it all.
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