The Dallas Cowboys are trading three-time All-Pro linebacker Micah Parsons to nan Green Bay Packers, according to an ESPN report, successful a blockbuster move that instantly reshapes nan NFC landscape.
Parsons and nan Packers person already agreed position connected a four-year, $188m statement that will make him nan highest-paid non-quarterback successful NFL history. The woody includes $120m afloat guaranteed astatine signing, $136m successful full guarantees, and a grounds $62m payout successful its first caller year.
The statement surpasses erstwhile benchmarks group by pass-rushers TJ Watt and Myles Garrett and underscores nan soaring marketplace worth of elite protect disruptors.
The waste and acquisition represents a melodramatic move for nan Cowboys, who only past week saw proprietor Jerry Jones disregard immoderate speculation astir Parsons’ early arsenic “pure BS”. Yet nan narration betwixt squad and subordinate had grown progressively fractured. Parsons, 26, had not participated successful a afloat believe since past play and had formally requested a waste and acquisition earlier this month.
Parsons was entering nan fifth-year action of his rookie contract, worthy $21.3m for 2025, but had revenge a grievance seeking to beryllium classified arsenic a linebacker alternatively than a protect extremity – a favoritism that would person accrued nan fig to $24m. Dallas had based on it could clasp him done aggregate franchise tags, efficaciously keeping him nether squad power for up to 3 much years. Parsons, however, made clear he nary longer wanted to play successful Dallas.
Signs of a divided had been mounting. He deleted references to nan Cowboys from his societal media and posted a TikTok featuring highlights from his Dallas tenure, group to Allen Iverson’s celebrated statement astir winning “wherever I go”. On 1 August, he released a connection saying: “After repeated shots astatine myself and each nan narratives, I person made a reliable decision: I nary longer want to play for nan Dallas Cowboys.”
For Green Bay, nan acquisition provides an contiguous upgrade to a defense already rich | successful young talent. The past woody of this magnitude came successful 2018, erstwhile nan Bears acquired Khalil Mack from nan Raiders for a package of precocious draught picks earlier handing him a six-year, $141m contract.