Cowboys Actually Did It – Parsons Is Gone
In an unprecedented Jerry Moment, Dallas deals away their best player for flexibility.
(presented without editor. Forgive the mistakes.)
They really did it. He is no longer a Dallas Cowboy.
Yes, I am pretty stunned.
A big part of this career is spending countless times admitting I got something wrong (despite being accused frequently of never admitting I ever get things wrong).
And yet again, I got this one wrong, dear readers. I clear underestimated Jerry Jones this time. Forgive me, but after covering him for 28 seasons up-close and even more from afar, I did not believe he would trade away his best player over money.
I figured, like usual, that we would see the Cowboys cave in and pay the man his money. I expected that Micah Parsons would take the field with money everywhere on September 4th in Philadelphia as the highest paid non QB in NFL history. I expected the Cowboys cap situation to be a bit of a mess for the next several years. And I expected the same basic outcomes of many Cowboys seasons to be assured to fall well short of any sort of Super Bowl scenarios, because we know how this would likely play out.
My expectations of Jerry Jones led me – and most everyone covering this story – a bit astray.
Because in the end, Jerry Jones did something that he has never done before. He made himself worse to attempt a different path forward.
=====
But, wait, that isn’t the only part of this story I got incorrect based on my priors.
I also know the Green Bay Packers intimately. I have known their organization since my birth and have tracked their movements closely and with great interest. Not 28 seasons, but roughly 50. And I know their DNA because I was raised on it. And the Green Bay Packers do not do this sort of thing. They do not leave the prudent and careful lane because they cannot afford to do so. They are never the bold and potentially reckless franchise because they can never allow emotional risks to ruin what they have carefully constructed over years. They know irrelevance in this league and realize that one false move could be all it takes.
So, I knew in my bones that the last franchise to risk everything to get someone like Micah Parsons would be the Packers. They never trade multiple draft picks of high value for a veteran player that needs more money than anyone has ever needed before.
The Packers have no “crazy owner”, so they never decide to go all-in on a hand of poker and let the draw determine whether they keep their house or not.
There is no franchise less likely to make an all-or-nothing deal like this than the Green Bay Packers. They just aren’t that kind of franchise.
=====
So, yeah. Jerry Jones acted way out of his norms and so did the other side. And for that reason, I assumed both parties were not actually going to make this deal happen.
But, yesterday, at exactly 4pm, the bomb dropped. The Cowboys really traded 26-year old Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers. And the Packers really traded two 1st round picks and Kenny Clark as well as agreed to pay Micah for his next 4-years at $188 million.
