Cowboys 'feel really good' about Micah Parsons trade, but re-signing him still would have been the better move

"You look at a guy like Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark, they're alpha players who not only are 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. As we mentioned, we add a guy like Caleb Downs, who is obviously the same type of character. He's going to make everybody around him great. Everybody's going to feed off of him. And then the pieces that we've added the last couple years. We're fired up about (Donovan) Ezeiruaku, who was a second-round pick for us last year who I think it's all in front of.

"I just feel very optimistic that we have the right pieces in place to go out there. Ultimately, the decision we made was that one player was not worth four or five good ones. We feel like that's where we're gonna end up here, in a good spot. We had that opportunity there and didn't feel like we were one player away last year, but I certainly feel like we're putting the pieces together to give us an opportunity to go do what our fans deserve, what we want, which is to go try and win the big trophy."

Micah Parsons' impact

Both Jerry and Stephen Jones pointed back to their mantra that one player isn't worth "four or five good ones" since shipping Parsons to Green Bay. However, in the case of a player as impactful as Parsons, they would have been better off re-signing him prior to the edge rusher market jump in the spring of 2025. That would have allowed them to have Parsons and other good defensive players alongside him.

Without Parsons in 2025, Dallas allowed its second-most points per game in the franchise's 66-season history (30.1) and ranked last in the league in passing yards per game allowed (251.5) and third-down conversion rate allowed (47.3%). With the Packers, Parsons became the only player with 12-plus sacks in each of his first five seasons since sacks became an official individual statistic in 1982. The Packers were the NFC's No. 2 overall seed prior to his Week 15 ACL tear against the Denver Broncos. Green Bay finished as the NFC's No. 7 seed and lost in the opening round of the postseason.

* Parsons: Missed final four games of 2025 season with torn ACL

The Cowboys' post-Parsons outlook

Downs is not part of the Parsons trade since Dallas used its own first-round pick to snag him. Clark will turn 31-years-old in October and is coming off a 2025 season in which Pro Football Focus' 67.6 defensive grade categorized him as the NFL's 37th-best defensive tackle. He is a scheme fit for new defensive coordinator Christian Parker's defense, but his peak years are most likely behind him.

Williams, a four-time Pro Bowler and 2022 first-team All-Pro defensive tackle, is now the All-Pro-caliber talent set to anchor Dallas' defensive line in Parsons' absence. PFF assessed him an 88.8 defensive grade in 2026, the second-best in the league among defensive tackles and trailing just Cameron Heyward's 90.4 mark. When CBS Sports asked Williams about replacing Parsons as Dallas' defensive anchor back in November of 2025, he acknowledged he couldn't provide the same pass-rush impact as Parsons.

"It's pretty cool man," Williams said on Nov. 5, 2025. "Micah Parsons is a phenomenal player. He can do things where I can't dream about doing, especially [when] it comes down to rushing the passer. We're totally different players, man, in that aspect. I'm more interior presence, interior push, physical, strong and a good interior pass rusher. I'm just here to do my job to the best of my ability and be a difference maker from the interior standpoint and the defensive line standpoint the best way I can."

How the Cowboys could have retained Parsons and maintained financial flexibility

The Cowboys' biggest argument for trading Parsons is avoiding the top-of-the-market financials the Packers chose to give him. However, Dallas could have had their cake and eaten it too by re-signing Parsons with plenty of leftover capital had Jerry Jones chosen to be more proactive with extension talks.

After the 2023 season, they could have extended Parsons. At that time, San Francisco 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa's five-year, $170 million extension with an average per year salary of $34 million stood as the top of the market at Parsons' position. That remained the case up until March of 2025. Jerry Jones chose to spend the 2024 offseason delaying the eventual re-signings of wide receiver CeeDee Lamb (four years, $136 million) and quarterback Dak Prescott (four years, $240 million) to the end of the summer while punting Parsons' negotiations to the 2025 offseason.

Following four consecutive 12-sack seasons by Parsons in Dallas, Jones was ready to begin extension talks in 2025. Had a deal been reached before March, Dallas could have re-signed Parsons for perhaps somewhere between $35 and $36 million per year. Then, an avalanche of contracts for other top edge rushers hit with new deals for Maxx Crosby (three years, $106.5 million), Myles Garrett (four years, $160 million), Danielle Hunter (one year, $35.6 million) and T.J. Watt (three years, $123 million).

Jerry Jones' style of playing what he calls "option quarterback" and waiting until the last second cost the Cowboys one of the best edge rushers in football at a salary cap-friendly rate. That would have allowed them to retain Parsons and fill out their defense with more players, since the NFL's salary cap continues to rise, thanks to its $110 billion media rights deal spanning 11 years.

Now, it is incumbent upon new defensive leadership to mold Williams and company into a better defense without one of the NFL's most impactful pass rushers.