If you believe Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the Dallas Cowboys totally bungled the Micah Parsons trade.
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Florio laid it out bluntly: the Cowboys waited too long, lost leverage, and settled for less than they could have had. He compared it to how the Houston Texans handled the Deshaun Watson mess three years ago. Nick Caserio, Houston's GM, created a four-team bidding war and squeezed every drop of value from a bad situation. The Cowboys? Not so much.
Instead of moving Parsons when teams had cap space and free agency was still wide open, Jerry Jones sat on it. By the time Dallas made their move, the market had dried up. "If they were going to trade Parsons, they should have made it known in early March," Florio wrote. "More teams would have had interest in March. More teams would have come to the table in March."
The result? Dallas got two first-round picks — not until 2026 and 2027 — plus 30-year-old defensive tackle Kenny Clark. Florio points out those picks will probably be late in the round, and Clark's best years may already be behind him. Parsons, meanwhile, just landed the richest non-quarterback deal in NFL history from the Green Bay Packers.
Jones admitted Thursday night that Dallas had been mulling a Parsons trade since spring, but conceded they didn't shop him widely before the draft. "We had [talks], but we didn't have them with anybody else," Jones said. And that, Florio argues, is the problem.
As Florio put it, Dallas didn't just misplay the timing. They botched the entire strategy. This is the same front office that has drafted well for decades but constantly trips over its own feet when it comes to contract and trade decisions. Jerry the G.M. has made a career out of waiting too long.
Bottom line, per Florio: the Cowboys screwed this one up. They should have gotten more.
