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The Dallas Cowboys’ take on trading superstar defensive end Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers is simple: It was the right move.
“We feel really good about it,” Cowboys Chief Operating Officer Stephen Jones said of trading Parsons to the Green Bay Packers in an interview with Mad Dog Sports Radio on Tuesday. “Obviously there’s a lot of 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 are not only 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. We add a guy like Caleb Downs, who is obviously the same type of character. He wants to make everyone around him amazing. Everyone will eat from him. And then the pieces that we’ve added over the last few years. We are excited about [Donovan] Ezeiruaku, which was a second round for us last year, which I think is all ahead.”
After failing to reach a long-term deal with Parsons last season, Dallas traded him to the Green Bay Packers for defensive tackle and three-time Pro Bowler Kenny Clark and two first-round picks (2026 and 2027) in August; Parsons subsequently signed a four-year, $188 million ($136 million guaranteed) extension with the Packers.
Parsons, a Pro Bowler in each of his five seasons in the NFL, went on to have a productive debut season with the Packers, but it was one that was cut short after 14 games due to a torn ACL. Before the injury, Parsons totaled 12.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and 41 combined tackles, helping him earn his third career All-Pro honor.
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At the same time, at the 2025 NFL trade deadline, Dallas traded its 2026 second-rounder, a 2027 first-rounder—the higher of the two first-rounders the Cowboys have in the 2027 NFL Draft—and defensive lineman and 2023 first-round pick Mazi Smith for the four New York Bowler tacklers from the New York Jents. Granted, the Cowboys missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season, finishing 7-9-1.
“I just feel very optimistic that we have the right pieces in place to go out there. At the end of the day, the decision we made was one player isn’t worth four or five good ones,” Jones said of the aftermath of the Parsons trade. “We feel like that’s where we end up here, in a good place. We had that opportunity there and didn’t feel like we were one player away last year, but I definitely feel like we’re putting the pieces together to give us an opportunity to go and do what our fans deserve, what we want, which is to try to win the big trophy.”
As for this earlier draft, the Cowboys traded up one spot with the Miami Dolphins to select Ohio State Buckeyes safety and two-time All-American Caleb Downs with the No. 11 pick. They also traded back three spots with the Philadelphia Eagles and selected UCF Knights defensive lineman Malachi Lawrence with the No. 23 pick — which they received from the Packers in the Parsons trade — among other picks.
