The Dallas Cowboys shocked the NFL world when they traded Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers last week. 

Trading away a player of Parsons’ caliber is stunning by itself.

The fact that he was traded to a hated, in-conference rival—one that immediately signed him to the record-breaking contract that the Cowboys failed to give him—added to the league-wide eyebrow raising.

So, how did the situation dissolve to the point that trading Parsons was not just an option, but the outcome here? And what does it mean for each team going forward?

By now, it seems clear that the crux of the situation comes from a meeting that Parsons had with Dallas' owner Jerry Jones back in the spring.

In that informal meeting, the topic of Parsons’ next contract was broached, and numbers were exchanged. 

While Jones interpreted this as a formal negotiation and agreement, Parsons did not share that point of view and referred the team to his agent David Mulgheta for more discussion. 

This difference of opinion led to months of Jones attempting to hold Parsons to what he viewed as the agreed upon contract from that spring meeting while Parsons “held in” during attempted negotiations. 

Parsons publicly requested a trade on August 1st and, while many saw that as a negotiation tactic, the Cowboys called his bluff by telling him to either play on his contract for this year, or he’ll be traded. Shortly after, Parsons was a Packer.

What Parsons’ Trade Means for Packers

For Green Bay, this is nothing short of a coup. Two first round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark is not a small price to pay of course. 

But there are two things to keep in mind. For one, those picks are likely to be in the late 20s or even the 30s of the draft order.

Second, Clark, who is coming off the worst year of his career (albeit while playing through injury), will be 30 in October and was likely to be a cap casualty after this season. It’s an easy price to pay for a 26-year-old, all-world pass rusher.

And consider this: many of the Packers' key contributors, such as Edgerrin Cooper, Jayden Reed, and Zach Thom, have come from outside of the first round.

They may be one of the few teams well equipped to sustain the blow of not having a first-round pick until 2028.

What Parsons’ Trade Means for Cowboys

As for Dallas, they’re a team at a crossroads.

While Clark presumably fills their need for a reinforced run defense, he actually struggled in that regard last season.

As mentioned above, while he did play through injury, he’s coming off of the worst year of his career.

Per Pro Football Focus, he finished with a 59.3 overall grade, good for 85th out of 219 qualified defensive linemen. This included a 57.1 run defense grade, good for 83rd out of the 219 qualified DLs.

The Cowboys will have to hope that those numbers are purely the result of injury, and not the beginning of a decline as Clark enters his 30s.

As for the picks, Dallas fans can take solace in knowing that the team has typically had success with first rounders the last half decade, drafting standouts such as Tyler Smith, Tyler Guyton, CeDee Lamb, and of course, Parsons himself.

The fans, and the front office, will have to hope that run of success continues going forward.

The postmortems of this trade will continue for years, likely until we get an idea of how successful the players drafted with those picks are in their careers.

In the meantime, one thing is clear: for a man that is referred to as “The Gambler” in the recent Netflix series about him and his team, Jerry Jones has certainly put all of his cards on the table.

And by pushing all of his chips in, he and the Cowboys better hope that the hand he’s played doesn’t bust.