NFL News by a Soccer Fan

Last week, a league shaking trade occurred in the NFL. The Dallas Cowboys traded Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers for defensive tackle Kenny Clark and two future 1st round picks. To give you a rundown of this trade, Micah Parsons is one of, arguably, the best defensive player in the NFL right now above the likes of Myles Garrett, TJ. Watt, and Pat Surtain III. Micah is a four-time pro-bowler, that’s like 4 All Star appearances for you NBA fans. He led the league in rushes against a quarterback; and was just a defensive DOG overall. He seemed to never leave Dallas, and this quote explains it: He wanted to be a Cowboy, and we did everything we could for him to remain a Cowboy." This begs the question, why did the Cowboys trade him? I mean he’s a 4-time prow bowler, one of the best defensive players in the NFL right now and was a franchise player. The Cowboys, specifically, their owner Jerry Jones, did not want to pay him for what he owed. Now Jerry Jones has raised many eyebrows for quite some time, from the time he fired popular coaches Tom Landy and Jimmy Johnson, and purposefully creating controversy so that the Cowboys remain in the public eye, even though it’s considered “America’s Team”, a team that has not won a Super Bowl in 25 years. Jerry Jones wanted to pay him, but he believed that they were “overpaying”. Jerry, when you have one of the best players in your team and in the NFL, you must pay the guy. This led to contract disputes and Parsons refusing to participate in offseason training and if you search him up in training camp, you can see that he was not happy with what was happening and the conflict between him and Jones over these disputes. This was a major sign that Parsons was ready to leave, and the Packers were the first one to show interest, and they successfully managed to acquiree Parsons through this trade only having to give a decent but reaching 30 years, in Kenny Clark and two first round picks in next year’s 2026 and 2027 NFL Draft.

Now I’ll talk about the winners and losers of this trade:

Winners:

The Packers- This is a clear winner. I mean when you give so little and you get a player such as Parsons; you are automatically a Super Bowl Contender. Aside from him, the Packers have many great players in Jordan Love, who is incredible when healthy, Josh Jacobs, a top 10 running back in the league, new promising rookie in Matthew Golden, and Xavier Mckinely who is an All-Pro Safety. All these players combined with Parsons could contend to win it all and return to their winning way like Aaron Rodgers Packers era.

The NFC East- With Parsons leaving the Cowboys, their team will be weaker than it was before. The Cowboys do have a great team with incredible players like Dak Prescott, Ceedee Lamb, and now they acquired George Pickens. But overall, the team will have to rely mostly offensively, especially throwing the ball since Dallas has poor running back room. The Cowboys will struggle in this division with the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles, NFC Finalists, with best young quarterback right now in Jayden Daniels, the Commanders, and a Giants team with high morales after a good preseason and their rookies performing in Abdul Carter and Jaxson Dart, key in this team

The Losers:

The Cowboys- The Cowboys are the clear losers of this trade, but I don’t want to get into much detail since I kind of explained how it affects their team losing such a valuable and snubbed by the Packers in the trade, only having to give Kenny Clark, a left tackle. This trade is confusing if you consider that the Cowboys already have good tackle depth, obviously Kenny is an improvement, but it was unnecessary, and now they have a poor edge rushing depth with Parsons leaving. Also, this Cowboys team had the potential to contend for the Super Bowl, but a contract and negligent owner possibly caused the downfall of the Cowboy’s next season.

Dallas Fans- Dallas Fans have been going through it this past year. If you don’t remember last year, the Mavs traded Luka Doncic, a generational, franchise player, one of the best players in the league, and a future Hall of Famer. The Los Angeles Lakers traded Anthony, a great perimeter and shoot blocking center, but many injury concerns in the past, and Max Christie. This trade was majority fault of Maverick’s GM Nico Harrison who oversaw this trade going through and Dallas fans were grieving, like if someone had just died. Luka represented and he embraced Dallas, he brought Dallas to their winning ways and heck, brought them to the NBA Finals in 2024 but lost to a great Celtics team. Now with Parsons, Dallas has lost their best two athletes in their respective sports. But it’s not all inherently bad since the Mavericks ended up getting the 1st pick in this year's NBA draft and selected Cooper Flagg, recognized as a generational player, and the Dallas Wings in the WNBA getting the 1st pick this year’s draft as well. They selected Paige Bueckers, who led her team to a NCAA Championship with UCONN last year. But far from it, it has been difficult for Dallas sports fans.

This trade is something you don’t see very often with a player of his caliber, but when push comes to shove, a contract is a symbol of loyalty and trust, saying: “we trust you and we believe you will help us this season, and become the future of this franchise”. But as soon as this trust is broken, it is when all falls apart and that is what Jerry Jones, and the Dallas Cowboys could not do.

Thank you for reading this article. I just got into the NFL like a year ago, but I love writing articles about sports. I hope you enjoyed reading this article and have a good day.