As much as Dallas Cowboys fans want to forget the Micah Parsons trade ever happened, it's going to dominate headlines in DFW this season. What makes it all the more difficult to stomach is that Jerry Jones rejected a last-minute apology from Parsons, who never wanted to leave despite a messy negotiation.
There’s also the fact that Jones shipped Parsons to the Packers - a team that’s handed Dallas heartbreak after heartbreak for the last 15 years - and didn’t get nearly enough in return. Two late first-round picks and a good-not-great defensive tackle in Kenny Clark doesn’t equate to Parsons. Given he was sent to Green Bay, Jones should’ve asked for a planet in return.
It begs the question of why Jones didn’t trade Parsons before the draft, when teams would’ve been more aggressive to acquire him. According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, that’s because the Cowboys prefer to zig when everyone else zags.
Cowboys' logic for trading shows Jerry Jones is unfit to be the general manager
"Some make the argument that two firsts and Kenny Clark isn’t terrible. Others say you should have gotten more and if you would’ve done it pre-draft, you could have opened things up to more teams," Fowler said on 105.3 The Fan. "Dallas actually counters that. They believe fundamentally that it’s better to wait after the draft to do a trade. That’s just kind of their MO. Other teams disagree with that. Dallas thinks like ‘you try to do a trade April 24 teams are eager to make their picks and don’t want to give them away.'"
That says a lot, doesn't it?
If the Cowboys’ ultimate goal was to extend Parsons, then trading him before the draft never should’ve been an option. But that only highlights a deeper issue with their team-building process. This negotiation should have happened last offseason, when Parsons first became eligible for a new deal. That might’ve created an opportunity for an April trade, assuming things broke down and Parsons asked out while Jerry Jones refused to set aside his ego.
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Regardless, that Dallas prefers to wheel and deal after the draft just shows Jerry Jones has no concept of how to win a trade.
A whopping 16 trades were made this past March, most of which featured recognizable names like Geno Smith, Deebo Samuel, D.K. Metcalf, Laremy Tunsil and C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
Care to guess how many trades were made in April and May combined? Three. And the Cowboys were involved in two of them, acquiring Joe Milton from the Patriots in April and George Pickens from the Steelers in May.
Teams don’t hand out draft picks like they’re on an Oprah giveaway, but they’re undeniably more willing to deal them before the draft, not after, especially if it means landing a star who fits a win-now window.
March is the clear prime window for roster shopping. But Jerry Jones insists the real value comes in May, June, and July - long after the offseason frenzy has cooled. So don’t count on the Cowboys winning a trade while he’s still meddling at the top.