There is so much wrong with the Dallas Cowboys' decision to trade Micah Parsons. As dumb as it is - and it is all-time bad - if Jerry Jones was going to trade him the time would have been in March before teams spent all of their cap space and still owned their picks for the upcoming draft.
Of course, Jones could have simply set his ego aside and got a deal done with a generational pass rusher, and a report from Jane Slater of NFL Network all but points to Jones as the reason Parsons no longer has a star on his helmet.
Per Slater, Parsons approached the Jones with "empathy" after trade rumors got leaked earlier this week about signing an extension. The team responded by telling Parsons to play on the fifth-year option or leave.
Jerry Jones rejected Micah Parsons' last-minute effort to sign a Cowboys extension
I spoke with Micah Parsons this evening. He says “genuinely gonna miss ya’ll”
— Jane Slater (@SlaterNFL) August 28, 2025
He says he and his team went back to the Cowboys about an extension with “empathy” when the trade interest was leaked this week.
The Cowboys response according to Parsons was “play on the 5th year…
Thursday's press conference afforded Jones the chance to tell his side. When asked if that was, in fact, his response, he said, “Correct. That was correct.”
Let's be clear: there is a lot Parsons could have done better during the standoff. Laying on the training table without a care in the world for his teammates that were on the field was a rough look. Claiming to have back tightness and going as far as to seek a second opinion to potentially sit out in Week 1 was bound to ruffle feathers.
With all of that said, this ultimately falls on Jones shoulders.
Putting the negotiations on ice after Parsons asked to involve his agent in the process - which is standard negotiation protocol - was bound to ruffle feathers in the Parsons camp. That started a summer's worth of chess moves on both sides that deteriorated the relationship, and it clearly reached a point that persuaded Jones to jettison the two-time All-Pro.
It is hard to believe that trading Parsons was a "unanimous" decision within the organization, as Jones claimed in the emergency press conference. That implies the entire coaching staff and player leaders were consulted.
Even if Parsons wasn't everyone's cup of tea inside the locker room, there is no defending trading a superstar pass rusher in their prime. That would imply a rebuild is on the horizon, and the Cowboys are a year removed from paying their franchise quarterback and stud receiver.
Almost everything about it defies logic. That sentence is a sad, but true encapsulation of the franchise for the last 25 years.