The trade sending Micah Parsons from the Cowboys to the Packers will go a long way towards determining the future of each franchise for years to come. Unfortunately for fans in Dallas, the whole mess could have been avoided if Jerry Jones had been able to stay out of the way.
The dynamic edge rusher's recent comments on the series of events that led to his move to Green Bay make it crystal clear he was not agitating for a trade. Parsons went on the record with his wish that his relationship with Jones had never been "compromised." In the player's eyes, that happened when Jones pushed for a meeting without his agent present.
Micah Parsons speaks up about relationship with Jerry Jones
"I just wish some of those things never happened. You know what I mean?" he told Clarence Hill of All City DLLS Cowboys. "I wish that he never brought me into the office and just let the agent speak. And I wish he hadn't compromised our relationship. I thought me and Jerry had a good relationship up to that point until this offseason, and it's sad that it went to shit like that."
That may seem like an innocuous request to some Cowboys fans, but it's the sort of thing that's frowned on around the NFL. The simple idea is that owners only push for that kind of meeting if they want to pressure a player to agree to something without representation present. It's possible Jones simply wanted the opportunity to speak to his star player directly, but he paid the price for asking to do so.
"There's only two people who know the real truth—me and Jerry Jones," Parsons said. "I'm not mad or anything. I went to another historic organization. I got paid a historic amount. So I got really nothing to be mad about in this world."
Do the Cowboys regret trading Parsons?
Parsons isn't mad about ending up in Green Bay, but it's clear he wouldn't have minded sticking with the Cowboys. Dallas would have needed to pay him a premium salary, but the reality that he holds no ill-will towards the franchise shows he was open to making a deal.
The more interesting question here is whether or not the Cowboys regret the trade. Meeting Parsons' asking price would have complicated the team's salary cap for years to come. Instead, they got much cheaper by offloading Parsons for a great deal of draft compensation. That helped the team pivot towards a Quinnen Williams trade to rebuild their defensive front.
It still seems likely that Jones would have preferred to keep Parsons on the team. He's the sort of big-name superstar that the Cowboys have gone to great lengths to keep in town during Jones' tenure with the franchise. The problem Dallas has endured recently has been the timeline of handing lucrative contracts to their stars. That pace ultimately cost them Parsons and even cost them millions of dollars with star quarterback Dak Prescott.
In the end, the Cowboys will tell everyone willing to listen that trading Parsons was the right move for the overall health of the roster. Similarly, Parsons will never admit that he's anything other than completely satisfied in Green Bay. Things never had to get so toxic between both parties though. A little patience and maturity could have prevented this whole mess for the Cowboys and the prolific sack artist.
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