The final domino of a pretty wild 2025 offseason has finally fallen. And it was a big one. At the start of this calendar year, it seemed unthinkable that Micah Parsons would not wear the Dallas star on his helmet in 2025. But sometimes, life is stranger than fiction.
Advertisement
Jerry Jones seemingly thought he went through a time machine and landed back in the Deep South during Reconstruction: “What? A deal worth over $200 million and the next half-decade of your life can’t be sealed with a simple hand shake? How dare you!” Of course, that’s not what he actually said. But it’s pretty much the gist of it based on what he offered during his post-Parsons trade presser.
Jones ended up getting two first-round picks and Packers Pro Bowl DT Kenny Clark in the deal. A solid haul, but not really an impressive one considering Parsons’ age and positional profile. Without a doubt, Jones’ negotiation style not only put himself and his team into a corner here but also with the Lamb and Prescott deals. Nonetheless, the somehow-still-cocky 83-year-old was bold enough to claim that this was all part of the plan.
“I really like Micah. I appreciate the four years we had him here. He’s a great player. No question, I could have signed him in April. This was by design. I did make Micah an offer and it wasn’t acceptable, and I honored the fact that it wasn’t done how he wanted — through an agent.”
Needless to say, there aren’t many people apart from the “yes men” Jones has surrounded himself with in Big D that believe his plan was always to wait until the last minute to trade Parsons for a subpar package from a conference rival. And that too for a team that has eliminated them from the playoffs three times since 2014. And if that really was Jerry Jones’ plan, it begs the question — why?
Jones had another hilarious little sound bite during that presser. Not only was the Parsons trade part of the plan, but the ouster of the 26-year-old All-Pro talent was part of the bigger goal of improving Dallas’ run defense by acquiring Clark.
“We did think it was in the best interest of our organization—not only the future, but right now, this season as well. We’ve gained a Pro Bowl player in an area that we had big concerns in, the inside of our defense. The facts are, specifically, we need to stop the run. We haven’t been able to stop the run at key times for several years,” he stated.
Jones has at least been looking at the stats. The Cowboys allowed the fourth-most rushing yards last season. But while Clark is an elite run defender who has been named to the Pro Bowl thrice since 2019, trading away a defensive All-Pro hardly seems like a move designed to improve a defensive unit.
While many people have been critical of Jerry Jones’ decision, Cam Newton is not one of them. In fact, he lauded Jones for the move.
“Trading Micah Parsons freed up $24 million in 2025 salary cap space. … On top of that, at the bare minimum you could potentially get three good players for the price of one.”
"Is this an emotional impact to the locker room? Yes. But, for the betterment of the locker room? You have an opportunity to get three potential players for future situations."@CameronNewton shares his thoughts on the Cowboys trading Micah Parsons 👀 pic.twitter.com/C7cjyRTlp1
— First Take (@FirstTake) August 29, 2025
Newton went on to say that, from a Cowboys perspective, how this trade turns out will not be known for several years. However, he argues that the Packers will know if they made a mistake in the next six months. He painted that as a positive for Dallas and a negative for Green Bay, but we think the opposite is true.
At least one thing is certain, though: With a 2027 first-round pick in the mix, only time will tell who really won this swap.
