The Cowboys traded away Micah Parsons last offseason and got a haul in return, and Smith says that what happened after the Herschel Walker trade has to happen now with the players gotten from Micah's trade.
Some sections of Dallas Cowboys fans are still a little annoyed that the franchise traded away Micah Parsons last offseason.
The team's best player was traded to the Green Bay Packers, with the Cowboys taking the view that they can be better with four or five good players instead of a great one.
The problem is it left the defense in an embarrassing state and was 32nd in the league in 2025.
But with the haul the Cowboys got from that trade, which included Kenny Clark (directly from Green Bay), Quinnen Williams (later from the Jets) and 2026 draft picks Malachi Lawrence, Devin Moore and LT Overton (with a Packers' first-rounder being transformed into three picks), that is what Dallas hopes will power it to success.
The incredible Herschel Walker trade in 1989 gave the Cowboys the weaponry to go on a dynastic run in the 90s.
Now, the Micah harvest isn't the Herschel Haul.
But for Hall-of-Famer and Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith, who was a guest on the Ross Tucker podcast, he still has faith that the haul gotten from the Micah trade can play a key role in the success of the franchise, but he also issued a warning to Jerry Jones and the front office as well.
“Here's the beautiful thing about that trade of Herschel Walker, it created the platform that we built and developed in the 90s," Smith said. "I still say we have the opportunity to do that, if we don't, then I believe the Dallas Cowboys and the family could be losing fans for a lifetime.
"Those fans will feel like they have been taken advantage of and no one has really paid attention to them, and that's when you will see an effect of sales, tickets, suites, merchandising going down, and that's the biggest way you can impact a person's pocket, is through their wallet."
Smith isn't wrong.
Even our own Mike Fisher has coined the phrase, "Sometimes Jerry Jones' Dallas Cowboys seem like a marketing company that plays football on the side," and based on what has transpired over the years, you can't dispute that.
But will there come a time when fans will stop buying merchandise, stop going to games, etc.? I doubt it because the Cowboys are such a big, global brand that people want to see them, whether they win or lose.
Who wins out of the trade of Parsons won't be known for another year or two, but the Cowboys sold the idea that they are better off with a collection of players than one generational one.
So, success needs to follow. But the question is, will it?
Dallas managed to kickstart its dynastic run after trading Walker. Will we look back on the Micah trade in 15 years and see the same?
