The Dallas Cowboys haven’t won anything meaningful in the last three decades, and the blame doesn’t rest solely on the players. A large part of it falls on Jerry Jones and his inability to adapt to a changing league.
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Jones’ insistence on playing both owner and general manager has held Dallas back for years. And the Micah Parsons saga is just the latest example of that mismanagement. Now that the Cowboys have traded the linebacker, the knives are out with analysts, including Mike Florio, blasting the Cowboys.
A quick recap of the Parsons saga and timeline will further show that Dallas could have dealt with it better. The 26-year-old linebacker had been seeking an extension since last year, but Jones, as usual, dragged his feet until this offseason. And things began to unravel.
Instead of negotiating through Parsons’ agent, David Mulugheta, Jones tried to handle talks directly, something Parsons made clear he didn’t want. The situation escalated when Jones publicly questioned Parsons’ fitness, criticized him in the media, and continued to freeze out his agent.
All the while, Jones insisted he had offered Parsons a record-setting deal with the most guaranteed money ever for a defensive player, dismissing Mulugheta as a “non-relevant part of the equation” and accusing him of pushing his own agenda. The approach backfired badly, souring the relationship between player, agent, and team.
Eventually, Parsons asked for a trade. In many cases, that’s just a leverage play, but this time, the fracture seemed beyond repair.
Today, the Cowboys sent Parsons to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for Kenny Clark and two first-round picks. Green Bay wasted no time, signing him to a four-year, $188 million extension with $136 million guaranteed. On paper, it looks like a blockbuster deal for both sides, but opinions are split.
Not everyone is impressed. Analyst Florio blasted Dallas for the timing, calling the Cowboys “idiotic” for making the trade after the draft instead of before, when they could have landed Parsons’ replacement. “This just shows how idiotic the Cowboys are,” he said.
“I mean, if you are going to trade Micah Parsons, you trade him before the draft, in 2025. At least, you get the 1st round pick, first- 1st round pick now. You get a player that’s going to help you now. It really is amazing. I’m flabbergasted that the Cowboys would screw this up so badly, and they deserve all the criticism they get,” added Florio.
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Jones believes this trade will make the Cowboys stronger in the playoffs and push them all the way. Florio, however, isn’t buying it as he predicts Dallas will extend its streak to three decades of not making an NFC Championship Game.
We won’t know for now who truly won this deal. It seems the edge clearly belongs to the Packers as of now. They landed a franchise-altering player in Parsons, exactly the kind of difference-maker they’ve been missing.
Green Bay’s defense has struggled over the past two years, and Parsons gives them both a cornerstone and an anchor to build around. The move also sends a message: The Packers are serious about chasing the Lombardi, and they’re willing to spend big to make it happen.
