Packers saw a ‘violent player’ in Micah Parsons; real motivation behind Cowboys trade revealed

The Dallas Cowboys, on th ( aug 28), made the shocking conclusion to merchandise their asterisk linebacker, Micah Parsons, for two first-round trade picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark from the Green Bay Packers. Soon after the trade was finalized, he also agreed to a four-year, $188 million extension deal with Green Bay, including $136 million guaranteed, making him the new highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history, as reported by USA Today.

This trade has driven mixed reactions, mostly criticism from experts and fans, ever since it was finalized.

Talking about Parsons’s laid-back attitude, seen in wearing a sweatshirt when on the sidelines at camp, bringing nachos into the AT&T Stadium, and lying on a training table, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated openly talks about the other side of why this trade was unnecessary.

“As we said, the pacing of this negotiation wasn’t wholly dissimilar from what we all witnessed with Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb last year, or even Zack Martin the year before that. Once the team arrived in California for camp in 2023 and ’24, their negotiations were put on the back burner, the same way Parsons’s were this summer. Basically, sending the message that if a deal isn’t done that works for the team early, the player has to wait,” Breer wrote.

“That said, there is a difference between this negotiation and the previous three. Martin, Lamb, and Prescott are/were very popular in the locker room. That’s not the case with Parsons, who has rankled teammates in different ways, seen by some as egotistical and self-centered. His podcast has created issues, too, that go all the way up to quarterback Dak Prescott.”

Breer considers this an opportunity for the team to get young, fresh talent on board. Hence, as per him, the decision became an obvious one when Parsons himself requested a trade. He has blamed the lack of trust the team's general manager, Jerry Jones, has in him.

“Previous defensive staffs had trouble with him at times because he would play out of structure in an effort to make big plays, which led to the run-defense issues Jerry and Stephen Jones kept referencing at their press conference,” he adds. “That does happen with great pass rushers—it was just too common with Parsons and, again, he was too smart a football player for these to be a string of honest mistakes.”

Breer also believes that the Packers kept an active watch and monitored the situation throughout to score an especially lucrative deal. Due to sufficient depth on the interior of the defensive line, the team felt no regret in letting go of a trusted player like Clark.

“The Packers wanted more speed on the edge to combat the mobile quarterbacks they’ll face this year, and going forward, and could envision a good rotation with Parsons, Rashan Gary, and Lukas Van Ness, with the ability to play all three together on passing downs. In Parsons himself, they saw a violent player and a fierce competitor who can play fast, and one you can line up all over the line of scrimmage,” he writes.

The Cowboys are scheduled to take on the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, in their regular-season opener on Thursday (August 28).

By Stuti Gupta

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