After a contentious contract standoff with Cowboys owner and GM Jerry Jones, Micah Parsons has been traded to the Packers.
ESPN was the first to report the deal.
Parsons will reportedly sign a four-year, $188 million deal with Green Bay, the largest contract ever for a non-quarterback. The $47 million average annual value is well above the $40.5 million per year Jones reportedly offered Parsons in March, a deal the Cowboys owner says Parsons agreed to before later asking him to speak with his agent.
In return, the Cowboys will receive two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark, according to multiple reports.
Clark, a first-round pick out of UCLA in 2016, has logged nine NFL seasons with the Packers and totaled 35 career sacks. He signed a three-year, $64 million contract last season.
Before Parsons agreed to his deal, Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt had the highest average annual value for any non-QB, at $41 million. Parsons resets the market at the position by a substantial margin.
Parsons’s 52 sacks through four seasons are the most for any player since J.J. Watt, and the sixth-most in NFL history.
Parsons posted a statement to social media after reports of the trade emerged. It reads, in part:
“I never wanted this chapter to end, but not everything was in my control. My heart has always been here, and it still is. Through it all, I never made any demands. I never asked for anything more than fairness. I only asked that the person I trust to negotiate my contract be part of the process.”
In a Thursday night press conference, Jones said that the Cowboys had been considering a trade of Parsons since the spring. “We did think it was in the best interest for our organization for the future and this season as well,” Jones said. “I did make Micah an offer. It wasn’t acceptable. I honored the fact that it wasn’t done the way that he wanted to do it, through an agent.
“A little bit of the way Herschel Walker may have had his greatest contribution to the Cowboys [when he was traded in 1989], what he brought to us when he left could be a tremendous thing for our fans and the success of this team,” Jones said.
The Packers have a reputation as a team that does not spend significantly on outside players, generally prioritizing their own draft picks. They have, however, made two other enormous additions in the past.
In 1993, famed edge rusher Reggie White signed a four-year, $17 million deal with the Packers, becoming the most significant player to change teams in the early free agency era. Green Bay ended up winning Super Bowl XXXI three years later.
In 2006, the Packers added defensive back Charles Woodson on a seven-year, $52 million contract. He made four All-Pro teams with the team, and Green Bay won the Super Bowl in 2011.
Per Spotrac, the Cowboys freed up $19 million through this deal and now have the second-most cap space in the NFL behind the Patriots.
Dallas is going through a dramatic year, as the NBA’s Mavericks stunned the sports world by trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers in February. The NHL’s Stars, however, decided to pile on to the news cycle with some levity, posting “Don’t worry y’all, Mikko Rantanen is a Dallas Star.”
