The Dallas Cowboys stunned the NFL less than one week before the kickoff for the 2025 season by trading star pass-rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers.
But before Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones made the deal with Green Bay, he checked if the New York Jets would be interested in obtaining Parsons, one of three defensive players who have been selected for the Pro Bowl in each of their first four seasons, following Aaron Donald and Patrick Peterson.
Jones wanted Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams. New York wasn’t interested.
During an appearance on WHSQ-AM in New York, Jones said the Jets “didn’t have the resources to entertain conversation.”
“It was a very good, brief visit,” Jones said. “… A prerequisite to the entire trade was that we had to have right now a really, frankly significant, dominant inside defensive player, which was our goal to address the run more than we’d been addressing it the previous four years that we’ve, at that time, had Micah. But we wanted to really bolster up there. We had tried to do it with Mazi Smith when we drafted him two years earlier.
“But that was a prerequisite that you didn’t get in the mentality of my trading if you didn’t have that coming through the door.”
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A former Wenonah High School standout, Williams joined the Jets as the third pick in the 2019 NFL Draft after he won the Outland Trophy as a unanimous All-American at Alabama in 2018.
Williams has been a Pro Bowl selection for New York in each of the previous three seasons, and he started the 2025 campaign with five tackles, one sack, two tackles for loss, three quarterback hits and one forced fumble in the Jets’ 34-32 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 7.
Jones traded Parsons to Green Bay for two first-round draft picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark on Aug. 28. During his nine seasons with the Packers, Clark earned Pro Bowl recognition in 2019, 2021 and 2023.
After recording 52.5 sacks, 63 tackles for loss, 112 quarterback hits and nine forced fumbles in 63 regular-season games with the Cowboys, Parsons sought a long-term contract extension with Dallas throughout the offseason that became a day-by-day media presence featuring the all-star and Jones as the season approached.
As part of the deal, Parsons signed a four-year, $188 million contract with Green Bay.
Williams and the Jets start AFC East play in Week 2 of the NFL season when they face the Buffalo Bills at noon CDT Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
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