NFL Trade Rumors
The NFL thrives on hype. There’s no shortage of “BREAKING” news that doesn’t necessarily live up to the tag on social media. But on Thursday we saw the rare trade where superlatives fall short in describing just how monumental and landscape-altering the deal will be. The Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys — two of the league’s most storied franchises — agreed to a trade that sent DE Micah Parsons — one of the best players in the sport — from Dallas to Green Bay.
This might be one of the most impactful trades in a generation. The ripple effects from this deal are more like tidal waves and will be felt for years and years to come. It’s not hyperbole to say that this deal could define the legacies for a plethora of people involved, everyone from Parsons to staff and players in both Green Bay and Dallas, even to swashbuckling Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
I won’t keep you in suspense. The Packers get an A and the Cowboys get an F for this trade, which felt lopsided from the jump and doesn’t get any better the more you dig in. But the reasons for both grades can tell a lot about where these two organizations might be headed from here.
In exchange for Parsons, the Packers gave the Cowboys their next two first-round picks as well as veteran DT Kenny Clark. Nothing in the future is guaranteed, but the Packers obviously expect those picks to be in the 20s or later given the addition of Parsons plus the presence of QB Jordan Love, who the team signed to a $55 million contract just a year ago. Clark is under contract for up to $3 million this year and up to $41.5 million over the next two seasons, though nothing past this year is guaranteed.
Green Bay also signed Parsons to a record four-year, $188 million deal with $136 million in guarantees. It’s an amazingly player-friendly contract on many levels. At $47 million a year, it blows past Browns DE Myles Garrett, Steelers OLB T.J. Watt and Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase who had set the bar for elite non-quarterbacks at around $40-$41 million a year. Parsons will get $62 million in the first year of the deal and $120 million in full guarantees.
It’s dramatically more than the five-year, $202 million deal Jones says he negotiated directly with Parsons back in April. Jones took issue with Parsons involving his agent after that and talks never picked back up. It led to an increasingly acrimonious relationship with the two sides taking digs at each other publicly while Parsons held in during training camp and did not practice.
In hindsight, it’s clear both sides were speeding toward a divorce, but right until it happened, people all across the league found it hard to believe the Cowboys would part with such an impactful player. After all, Jones is infamous for dragging out talks to the last minute...
