The Green Bay Packers have an opening for an edge rusher on defense, and arguably the best in the game just demanded a trade from the Dallas Cowboys.
Micah Parsons got more than just frisky with Jerry Jones and company on Friday, August 1, taking to his personal X account and stating flatly that he’s done in Dallas.
Parsons is a bold personality and a successful podcaster, so his choice to speak out directly isn’t shocking. Still, most players let their agents leak a trade demand to the media. Parsons took to his own platform with a lengthy, informative message detailing how he feels the team has disrespected and manipulated him throughout a now-stalled negotiation process.
Translation: Parsons probably isn’t playing the leverage game by putting pressure on the organization via the fan outcry that will surely follow should Dallas deal arguably the best defensive player in a generation. Parsons is serious, and he wants to get gone.
“I no longer want to play for the Dallas Cowboys,” Parsons wrote.
Dallas doesn’t have to honor the demand. Parsons is in the fifth-year team option of his rookie contract and the franchise tag will allow the Cowboys to keep him for one year, or even two, beyond that.
But the longer Dallas waits to pay Parsons or move him, the angrier he will become and the higher the price will get. It is fair now to ask which teams might be the favorites to deal for Parsons, and Green Bay must be atop any list.
Rivalry Between Packers, Cowboys Could Impede Trade Talks Around Micah Parsons
Garrett Podell of CBS Sports named Green Bay among his group of six potential landing spots on Friday.
In doing so, he noted what people familiar with the Cowboys and/or Packers have long known: that the teams and fanbases absolutely despise one another. Most recently, Green Bay embarrassed the Cowboys in Dallas during the opening round of the 2023-24 playoffs, blowing them out in Jordan Love’s first-ever postseason start.
Thus, Dallas may be loathe to deal Parsons to the Packers, or inside the NFC, if they trade him at all. That said, Green Bay needs pass-rush help more than 2024 statistics indicate, and the Packers would likely pay a premium price for it.
“Green Bay needed their pass rush to come through at key moments throughout last season, and it wasn’t able despite what the team’s 45 sacks (tied for the eighth-most in the NFL) and 35.3% quarterback pressure rate (13th in the NFL) indicated,” Podell wrote. “The Packers making this move for Parsons could set them up to break through for Super Bowl glory, much like their signing of Reggie White in the 1990s did.”
Packers Will Have to Surrender Massive Haul to Cowboys in Any Trade for Micah Parsons
If Green Bay wants Parsons, he is going to cost them — huge. Bill Barnwell of ESPN identified Parsons as worth two first-round picks and change in a column authored on July 30.
The baseline for a Parsons deal a year ago would have been Nick Bosa’s extension, which is worth $34 million per year. Now, [T.J.] Watt’s deal is up to an average annual value (AAV) of $41 million. Parsons is going to get a record-setting deal when he signs.
If [the Cowboys] did decide they couldn’t justify paying three players market-setting deals at the league’s three most expensive positions, he would attract a massive trade haul. The closest comp is Khalil Mack, who in 2018 was traded before his fifth season with a second-round pick for two first-round picks, a third-rounder and a sixth-rounder.”
Green Bay holds the rights to both its first- and second-round selections in each of the next two drafts. And considering their history as rivals, it’s unlikely Dallas would not afford any discount.
Beyond that, the Packers figure to be good over the next couple of years, which means their first-round capital is worth less than that of other potentially interested franchises.
As such, the Packers would likely have to part with first-round selections in 2026 and 2027, as well as a second-round pick in one of those drafts and another mid-rounder in one of the following two seasons (perhaps an asset of fourth- or fifth-round equity) to get a deal done.
