Micah Parsons’ split from the Dallas Cowboys was messy long before the trade to Green Bay became official. Darren Woodson just offered the clearest sign yet that some inside the organization may have been ready for it to end.
The three-time Super Bowl champion appeared on the Doin’ Alright podcast this week and defended the Cowboys’ decision to move on from Parsons, even though the star pass rusher was one of the best defensive players the franchise had drafted in years.
He did not dance around what he thought the Cowboys were dealing with.
“I think they’ve held on to guys way too long,” Woodson said. “And when you hold on to those viruses, man, it just continues to compound through the organization.”
Woodson never said Parsons’ name directly, but he did not leave much mystery either. He talked about players falling asleep before games and one player lying on his back in the stadium, a reference that immediately brought Parsons to mind after last summer’s preseason controversy in Atlanta.
That moment became one of the defining images of Parsons’ final months in Dallas. During a preseason game against the Falcons, Parsons was seen lying on a medical table on the sideline while his contract standoff with the Cowboys dragged on. He later pushed back on the criticism, saying he was receiving treatment for his back and insisting he would never disrespect teammates on the field.
The issue for Dallas, though, appears to have gone well beyond one sideline moment. Parsons wanted a market-level extension. The Cowboys never got there. And as the standoff dragged deeper into the summer, local reporting in Dallas suggested frustration with Parsons had spread inside The Star.
105.3 The Fan’s Shan Shariff said multiple people inside the building told him Parsons had “worn thin” with the organization. That does not make the trade any easier to justify strictly on football terms. Parsons was a four-time Pro Bowler in Dallas and one of the few defenders in the league capable of wrecking an offense on his own.
But Woodson’s comments point to the part of the story Dallas may have cared about most. The Cowboys were not just weighing sacks, pressures and production. They may have decided the larger issue was whether Parsons had become a problem they no longer wanted to manage.
And if Woodson’s read on the situation is accurate, the Cowboys did not just trade a star. They believed they were finally cutting loose a headache that had already lingered too long.
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