Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys are riding on a lot of hope regarding their side of the coin with the Micah Parsons trade. The Green Bay Packers are getting an All-Pro pass rusher in the middle of his prime, albeit with a hefty price tag that makes him the highest-paid non-quarterback in franchise history.
Dallas will have to wait to see the true value of their end of the trade. In exchange for Parsons, the Packers sent two first-round picks (2026 and 2027) along with defensive tackle Kenny Clark.
The veteran defensive tackle should solidify a need that’s plagued Dallas’ defense for years in stopping the run. However, the crown jewel of the trade for the Cowboys front office seems to be the two first-round picks. Owner and general manager Jerry Jones was practically salivating over the gumdrops dancing in his head during the press conference following the trade news, talking about what those draft picks can turn into.
In Jones’ defense, the team has been great at drafting and developing talent through the draft. When other teams seem to swing and miss in the first round, Dallas has a track record of being proven right, even if the media says they are wrong in the moment. Tyler Smith is a perfect example.
Those two draft picks carry a lot of weight right now, but there’s no telling where they land given how good the Packers have proven to be under head coach Matt LaFleur. Since joining the team in 2019, LaFleur has had just one losing season in 2022 when the team went 8-9, on the fringe of the playoffs. If Dallas hopes Green Bay’s draft pick turns into a top ten selection over the next two years, that sounds like a losing gamble for Jerry Jones.
During his guest appearance today on GBAG Nation with 105.3 The Fan, Pete Dougherty of The Green Bay Press-Gazette said that even before the Micah Parsons trade, he felt the Packers would be a 10-plus-win team in 2025.
“Even without Parsons I think the Packers were gonna to be a good team. I was gonna predict them to be 11-5 even though they have a tough schedule. They’ve got a pretty good roster top to bottom, they were just short on really elite talent, all of a sudden now they got one of the three or five best defenders in the league so that changes that.”
If Dallas finishes below .500 again for the second year in a row, maybe they combine that pick with the one from the Packers in 2026 and move up to get a primetime player like Parsons for a fraction of the price. However, like any lottery ticket, this strategy requires an investment in the unknown, hoping that the gamble pays off. In Parsons’ case, the Cowboys made a significant risk by banking on a vision, with Jerry Jones hoping to replicate the success he had from the Hershel Walker trade in the 90s that led to multiple...
