Looking back at how DAL ‘mishandled’ Parsons trade
Mike Florio and Devin McCourty react to Stephen Jones' recent comments on the Micah Parsons trade and reflect on how the Cowboys handled franchise-altering move.
Video Transcript
So, Stephen Jones, the Cowboys co-owner, future owner, executive VP, COO, he got a bunch of titles, but basically he's number two behind Jerry.
He was on with Adam Schein, SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio yesterday, and he was asked about the Micah Parsons trade, which obviously created multiple picks, and they've moved pieces around, and they're trying to fill the void without him.
Here is Stephen Jones as to the question of whether the Cowboys won the Parsons trade.
We feel really good about it.
obviously much respect for Micah and what he stands for and what, how he plays and, the ca- caliber of player he is.
But, you know, at the same time, we feel good about what we've added, you know, via that trade.
And, you look at a guy like Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark, they're, you know, they're alpha players who not only are great players on the field, but they're leaders, in the meeting rooms, how they go about their business in the off-season, just bring great leadership to this team.
The decision we made was, you know, that multiple player, one player, is not worth, you know, four or five good ones, and we feel like that's where we're gonna end up here and, in a good spot.
Okay.
The key is what do you do with the draft picks you use?
They got Kenny Clark, they got Quinnen Williams.
With both guys, they're not getting the benefit of bringing them in as young players who are inexpensive, who have full tread on the tires.
You're only gonna get so many years out of Clark and Williams.
You're gonna get less out of them than you would've gotten out of Michael Parsons, who was on the front end of his prime and still has plenty of good years left.
With those draft picks, you need to hit.
You need to draft well, and you need to develop those young players who are dotted line back to the picks that you acquired with the Michael Parsons trade.
I saw on Twitter at some point during the draft, somebody had the list of, like, all their, their draft picks and what they traded them for.
You know, Quinnen Williams was in lieu of a draft pick, and, you know, Malachi Lawrence, and, you know.
Somebody pointed out they need to put on there somewhere, "Not Michael Parsons," 'cause he's gone.
And, you know, it's great to feel pride in all the defensive players they've added, but they had one of the best defensive players, if not the best defensive player in all of football, and they gave him up.
Did they get enough?
I don't think they did.
They misplayed the whole situation.
They should've been trading him before the 2025 draft, not after that draft.
This should've come to a head at a time when they could've had multiple teams come to the table, like the Texans did with Deshaun Watson.
They could've put their thumb on the squale- square, scale and gotten more for, Michael Parsons than they did.
So, that's how I look at it.
And, they're always gonna paint it as a victory.
They're always gonna call it glass half full.
That's just how they're wired, but they could've done better, and the best outcome would've been find a way to pay Michael Parsons early, keep him happy, and have him continue to be the cornerstone of your defense for years to come.
Yeah.
And again, you can't say we lost the trade, but I don't think they can't say they won the trade.
Like, you have these draft picks, and I think, like you just said, we have to be careful that we don't, we don't name every new player a part of the Micah Parsons, you know, aftermath of, like, Rashan Gary comes there, like, "Hey, well, we got Rashan Gary here too now."
Like, everyone's not gonna be a part of that.
But you bring in Caleb Downs, who has a high ceiling, but, like, Micah Parsons came in with a high ceiling.
Then there was no more high ce- Like, Micah Parsons is who Micah Parsons is.
So once you lose that, you have to And I understand the thought of, like, "Let's get more good players," but there's also, like, there's certain guys that you don't say, "Hey, losing them, but getting four or five good players," which I'm, again, like, is it four or five good players, or are we talking about, like, three good players when you only talk about the Micah Parsons trade is what you have to figure out, or how you trade those picks and get more.
Like, all of those different things.
But if that person doesn't have a direct impact on how you go and win games, then no.
Like, it, it's not worth it.
So I'm still I was one of the guys when this trade first happened where I was like, "You, you're trying to now go find Micah Parsons when you already have Micah Parsons."
I think the, the missing piece in all of this is Stephen Jones, when he talks about, Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark of alpha and leaders in the locker room.
And I think ultimately the Cowboys felt like what they got on the field with Micah Parsons was great, but I think they felt like they could never reach the potential as a team because they didn't feel like he was the locker room leader or whatever they needed.
And I think we keep, we keep seeing that come up.
Like, to me, and that, to talk about winning the deal, like, mentioning that those guys are great in the locker room, all that, I think that is directly saying that's what Micah Parsons wasn't.
Because on field, Micah Parsons is above and beyond.
Like, what he brought to Green Bay, and then when he went out for Green Bay's D, like, it was obvious.
And I think they feel like, "Hey, let's get another redo at some of these young players we do bring in, that we can go get a great player, but also a guy that if he's not as good as Micah Parsons, he's a level lower.
But what he will add is helping our locker room be better.
That ultimately brings us to a Super Bowl rather than just being a good team," which we can kind of argue if the Cowboys actually care about that or not, but I do think that's a part of the team building that they continue to try to harp on, and it's yet to be seen, right?
If Micah Parsons can help lead that Packers team to a Super Bowl or further than they've been, then ultimately the Cowboys won't have won this trade.
So, we'll have to see how that kind of works out, and I think it all starts with a, a guy like Caleb Downs and what he will mean to this Cowboys defense.And we kind of sensed it coming for a while that there was going to be a break between the Cowboys and Michael Parsons.
It was still dramatic and stunning when it happened and how it happened.
It was building there even more intensely once we got into training camp and pre-season and he was not practicing, he was not participating.
He was on the massage table, and that apparently offended Jerry Jones or something like that.
But they started to make noise about his act wearing thin, and they've always had these criticisms of whatever, leadership.
I don't I mean, the guy's phenomenal when he plays.
And he plays well.
And he loves football.
And not every guy is gonna be this firebrand locker room leader, and that's okay.
When the player's that good, you, you tolerate it.
If the Giants could find a way to tolerate Lawrence Taylor, the Cowboys could find a way to tolerate Michael Parsons.
And the fact that the Packers were willing to give up what they gave up, and to make him, at the time, the highest- Yeah paid non-quarterback in the NFL, both of those together tell you that, that others view him in a way that the Cowboys didn't.
And I just keep coming back to this whole idea of Jerry wanting to negotiate directly with the player, and I think for Jerry and Steven, it's a bigger picture.
It's not just, "Now, we don't wanna surrender power.
We don't want a different reality where a Michael Parsons is able to take us on in our world of negotiating contracts, and get a contract that we just don't wanna pay."
Because it's gonna continue, and it's gonna continue, and it's gonna continue.
And lost in all- Yeah of it is they've done a crappy job of negotiating contracts with their biggest players.
They wait too long, they get backed into a corner.
Dak Prescott has had them over a barrel twice.
With Parsons, they just threw their hands in the air and they gave up, and they're gonna make it look like whatever they got, they could've gotten a kicker, a punter, and a long snapper from Michael Parsons- and they would act like they won the trade.
Yeah, and, and that's always my thing.
You brought up Lawrence Taylor.
I spent my 13 years with Bill Belichick in New England.
There's a lot of great players we had on the team.
You don't ask them to be leaders if they're not leaders.
You go and find other leaders.
Like that, like if you have a great player who needs to be around great leaders, hey, I can go get a great leader.
He could be a good player, but it, he'll be a better leader.
And then we surround players that are great with that leadership, and next thing you know, hey, we have a s- a championship team.
And I think that's the thing that's missing.
Like, hey, if you get an Emmitt Smith, and the Emmitt Smith's your best player but he's also one of your great leaders, that's awesome.
But if you don't have that, you go and you put great leaders around, or you go in the draft and try to find great players who were great leaders in their colleges as well.
And you hope when you piece all that together, you have a great team.
And I think that's the thing of what you just said, not wanting to give up power, but also being stuck in a mindset of how to do certain things that you, you just can't.
You can't operate that way.
You have to be able to adapt and adjust, and I got to see that firsthand.
And again, in New England, I mean, we can go on a tangent of how many picks weren't good picks, didn't turn out, but leadership and having the right players together, of course with number 12, was the difference of how things work out.
And I think we've seen with the Cowboys, they have certain pieces that, like you just said, other teams are dying to have, but they still haven't been able to find the right pieces to make that puzzle complete.
And again, we always talk about it.
Is that truly what they wanna do, or is, is it the drama that makes us continue to talk about them?
And I think that will always be up for debate as long as they kinda operate this way.
I mean, I think if you break it down to as simple as this.
Great player and a great leader, great player and not a leader, not great player, but a great leader.
I'm gonna take the great player who isn't a leader over the great leader who isn't a great player, because this is just one of the guys who needs to be led.
If they're all leaders, what's the point?
You got leaders and you got guys who are led by the leaders, and if you got a great player, let him be led by the leaders, but go find the leaders to lead the great player.
I think I gave myself an aneurysm.
So I, yeah, I mean, just deal with it.
When you have a great player, that You're, you're gonna win championships with the best collection of great players, so get as many great players as you can.
And when you have a great one, you work it out.
And I still blame the Cowboys for blowing that.
And how, how they may Who knows?
They may stumble into something we haven't seen them do in 31 years, get to an NFC Championship game.
They may win a Super Bowl.
Who knows?
But they still mishandled Michael Parsons, and he should still be in Dallas.
