For the second time in under a calendar year, the city of Dallas and the sports fans in that town were sideswiped by a massive, landscape-changing sports trade. Back on February 1, deep into a Saturday night, the Dallas Mavericks traded all-world forward Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, a move that resulted in protests outside the Mavericks arena, and chants of “Fire Nico” (for Nico Harrison, Mac’s GM) inside the arena.
This time, it was Cowboys owner (and sadly, their GM) Jerry Jones deciding that the appropriate ending to the Micah Carson’s contract stalemate was to trade Parsons to the Green Bay Packers for a couple first round picks and DT Kenny Clark. In the process, Parsons wound up with a four-year contract extension worth up to $188 million, making him the highest paid non-QB in NFL history, at $47 million per year.
There is no need to do winners and losers for this trade. The winner is obviously David Mulugheta, Parsons’ agent with whom, for some reason, Jones decided to make this whole thing personal. Much the same way Mulugheta was able to engineer a record-breaking contract for Deshaun Watson as an adjunct to a trade, he did the same thing for Parsons, de-pantsing Jones in the process.
Parsons’ resume speaks for itself — four time Pro Bowler, three time All Pro, 52.5 sacks in four years, and most importantly, a player whose most measurable impact was the fact that, over the past four years, the Cowboys were the league's best defense with Parsons on the field, by EPA per play. Across 1,039 snaps, those same Cowboys immediately became the league's worst defense by the same metric when Parsons was mot on the field.
The Packers are now +1200 to win the Super Bowl, as they were +2200 before the trade, while the Cowboys Super Bowl odds go from +4700 to +5500.
That about sums up the big picture angle son the deal, but I do have a few Houston Texans related thoughts after the execution of this trade. Here you go:
If you’re having flashbacks to bad Texans trades, here are the two that should haunt you
The DeAndre Hopkins trade and the Jadeveon Clowney trade. This Micah Parsons trade had the worst elements of both of those deals, almost as if those two trades had a baby with each other. The subpar compensation for an elite football player harkened back to the (even worse) second round pick and David Johnson that Bill O’Brien received for Hopkins, and the late suboptimal late August timing of the deal harkened back to the August 31, 2019 trade of Clowney to the Seahawks.
Be glad that Cal McNair is your team’s owner
I’ll bet you wouldn’t have been saying this four years ago, as the Texans were embarking on another season of Jack Easterby in the building and David Curley as the head coach, but here we are. The hires of Nick Caserio as the GM, and DeMeco Ryans as the head coach look like genius moves, and unlike Jerry Jones, Cal McNair is not going to involve himself in transactions like these. Cal cuts the checks, and then unleashes capable employees to go do their jobs, which is EXACTLY what you want from an owner.
Will Anderson is going to be so rich
So $47 million per year is now the high water mark for non-quarterbacks. After the 2025 season (March 2026 to be exact), Will Anderson, Jr. will become eligible for a long term, second contract. If he makes the leap in Year 3 that many expect, he might crack the $50 million per year barrier. Add in the likelihood that C.J. Stroud eclipses $60 million per year, and the salary cap calculus changes drastically for the Texans next year. One thing I can assure you — unlike Jones, Nick Caserio will not let things fester for months and months while both sides stare at each other. The Texans will try to get these extensions done quickly, as they did with Derek Stingley last March, a week after Stingley became extension eligible.
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