It hasn't even been a year since the blockbuster Micah Parsons trade, but the Dallas Cowboys have officially and completely moved on.
Although in many ways, the 2025 season feels like it was wasted with how good the Cowboys' offense was, the decision to trade Parsons to the Green Bay Packers was pretty simple in principle: Dallas did not believe one great player was worth four or five good players. And that is a sentiment that has been repeated to an almost political degree from the Cowboys' brain trust.
Cowboys EVP and CEO Stephen Jones recently reiterated the Dallas' internal pleasure over how the Parsons trade has played out, and he essentially said what everyone in the NFL refuses to say: The Cowboys might have actually made the right call.
Stephen Jones likes how Dallas Cowboys have reloaded the defense after Micah Parsons trade
Here's what Jones had to say (via NFL.com) regarding his thoughts on the trade now that the pieces are pretty much all in place:
"We feel really good about it. Obviously, much respect for Micah and what he stands for and how he plays and the caliber of player he is, but at the same time we feel good about what we've added via that trade.
You look at a guy like Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark, they're alpha players who not only are great players on the field, but they're leaders in the meeting room. How they go about their business in the offseason, [they] just bring great leadership to this team. As we mentioned, we add a guy like Caleb Downs, who is obviously the same type of character...
I just feel very optimistic that we have the right pieces in place to go out there. Ultimately, the decision we made was that one player was not worth four or five good ones."
There is really a lot going on with what Jones says right here that will perk up a lot of ears and eyebrows.
Of course, the general sentiment seems to be that the Cowboys are pleased with the way they've utilized the assets they got in that trade from the Packers. The acquisition of defensive lineman Quinnen Williams gives Dallas an absolute stud in the middle, but having Kenny Clark next to him is a really underrated piece as well.
The trade back in the first round of this year's draft with Green Bay's selection landed the Cowboys Malachi Lawrence, Devin Moore, and LT Overton. There's still the matter of which pick will go to the Jets next year from the Williams trade, but it will be whichever of Dallas' and Green Bay's pick is higher.
You can also tell that the personal makeup of the players they've added was important for Dallas in this process, and while Jones stops short of taking a dig at Parsons in that regard, you can hear what he's saying pretty loud and clear when he talks about guys being "alpha" players on the field as well as leaders in the meeting room. Message sent.
The thing nobody in the NFL really wants to admit is that the Cowboys did the right thing by trading Parsons when and how they did. And while you can debate whether they truly got great value, it's hard to argue with the idea that one player is worth four or five, especially when that one player would be taking up the same slice of the pie as most quarterbacks around the NFL.
It's not that you can't make it work, but in Dallas' context, they felt like that investment in Parsons was a signal that they were "one player away", and it's hard to argue with their self-awareness that they simply weren't in that position a year ago.
Although the cost was moving on from a true superstar off the edge like Micah Parsons, it's a trade that has helped Dallas reload a huge portion of their starting defense, including adding three quality players on the defensive front, maybe more.
Most people hated the Parsons trade just on principle. How can you trade a defensive superstar still with his prime years ahead of him? Doesn't it send a bad message to other players who earn big-money contracts? Ultimately, the Cowboys drew a proverbial line in the sand, and that's part of the business of the NFL.
They still have to hope that all of the new additions work out, but on paper, it's hard to argue with what the Cowboys were able to assemble rather quickly because of this trade.
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