Battle Red Blog
There was no bigger news in the NFL over the weekend than the Micah Parsons trade to the Green Bay Packers. Technically, he was traded for a defensive tackle and two first round picks. The Cowboys can claim they think this makes their team better, but it is really a salary cutting move because they did not want Parsons to be the highest paid NFL defender on their watch. Sure enough, he immediately signed a four year, 188 million dollar extension with the Packers.
We could go to spoctrac.com to get the particulars because all of these contracts are inflated and come with dozens of caveats. Still, this deal makes him the highest paid defender in the NFL and he is under contract until his age 30 season. It includes two voidable years as a way to spread out the money longer if things should go sideways, workout bonuses, and roster bonuses. It’s almost like you would need a professional agent to figure all of this stuff out.
At this point, you would be right to ask what this has to do with the Texans. The answer is two-fold. First, there is the pure unadulterated schadenfreude. As a kid, I always told everyone I had seventeen favorite teams. There was the Oilers (and then the Texans) and whoever was playing the Cowboys. My sports hatred has expanded since then to include the Tennessee Titans (for obvious reasons) but I still feel the same way about the Cowboys. A large part might have been going to college in the Metroplex and hearing about them every day. Most of it was an unearned arrogance that made you want to punch someone in the face. Jerry Jones is befuddled and I am here for every minute of it.
Sports hatred (as satisfying at it might be) doesn’t get you into these pages. What gets you here are the ripple effects that this kind of move causes throughout the rest of the league. Anyone that has played blackjack in a casino knows there is a certain etiquette. You may act like a jackass, but you don’t play like one. Players that hit when they shouldn’t or stay when they shouldn’t are hurting themselves, but they are also impacting the table. That extra card could have been my card. My card could have been your card. You get the idea.
So, when Jerry Jones sits on his thumbs and pays guys five or six million dollars a year than he should, those ripple effects are felt throughout the industry. Suddenly, Dak Prescott becomes the bar for quarterbacks. CeeDee Lamb becomes the bar for receivers, and now Micah Parsons is the bar for pass rushers. None of those things needed to happen. Jones just waited because he wanted the spotlight that waiting brought him. It likely is costing him two or three legit good players they now cannot afford. It is also costing the other NFL owners money.
Enter Will Anderson. Anderson is the next edge...
