Former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett said the team made a mistake in trading pass rusher Micah Parsons, while appearing on NBC’s “NFL Kickoff” show before Thursday’s season opener at the Philadelphia Eagles.
“I was shocked,” he said. “You can’t let that guy outside the building. You know, he’s an elite, elite player, the best pass rusher in the league, the most disruptive defensive player over the last four years. I was really surprised.”
Since Parsons entered the league in 2021, only four players have more than his 52.5 sacks and none are younger than the Penn State product.
However, Super Bowl champions Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison disagreed with Garrett, saying they understood why the Cowboys wanted to offload Parsons to the Green Bay Packers.
“I agree with Jerry,” Harrison said. “If you look within the division, if you want to compete, he understands it’s not about one great player. He needs a lot of good players. I didn’t think it was a right fit, personality-wise, and the fact that he had a podcast, I thought it was a huge distraction, and it was unfair to his teammates.”
Dungy said: “I have to disagree with Jason Garrett a little bit. It’s not that you can’t let a great player out of the building. It’s when you do it and how you do it, you gotta build a culture and help your coach. I think they should have made the move earlier.”
The Cowboys will begin life without Parsons and open the coach Brian Schottenheimer era against the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL season opener at 7:20 p.m. Thursday at Lincoln Financial Field.