Everything is fine with the Dallas Cowboys, according to Jerry Jones.
In fact, without Micah Parsons, Jones thinks his team might be better after he decided to trade Parsons to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday.
‘This gives us a better chance to be a better team than we have been the last several years while Micah has been here,’ Jones told reporters. ‘Nothing negative on Micah.
‘We can win more games than we would have, had we gone the other route and signed Micah.’
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Parsons signed a four-year deal worth $188 million ($136 million guaranteed), which makes him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league. The Packers sent two first-round picks and defensive lineman Kenny Clark to Dallas to complete the deal.
Jones, who appeared to call Parsons “Michael” multiple times throughout the news conference, said the team could flip either of the two first-round draft picks acquired from the Packers for 2026 and 2027 for other deals.
“Those draft picks could get us top Pro Bowl players,’ he said.
Jones added: “Nothing says we can’t use those picks to go get somebody right now. Don’t rule that out.”
To start the news conference, Jones spent plenty of time talking about run defense.
‘Without being too broad, we did think it was in the best interest for our organization, not only in the future but right now, for this season,” Jones said. “We gained a Pro Bowl player in an area that we had big concerns in, on the inside of our defense.
“The facts are, specifically, we need to stop the run. We haven’t been able to stop the run in key times for several years.”
The pass-rushing depth, per Jones, was why comfortable moving on and that adding Clark would overall improve the defense – even with the loss of Parsons.
“It was a prerequisite, and we only picked teams … that could pay Micah and had top (defensive) tackles,” Jones admitted.
“In addition to the depth, you could scheme pressure as well,” Stephen Jones, the team’s chief operating officer, said. “…But what is tough to scheme, is stopping the run.”
Jones said he has nothing but good feelings regarding Parsons. ‘I really like Micah,’ he said.
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“There’s not an ounce of vindictiveness, there’s no bad feelings on my part about the fact that we didn’t come together on an agreement,” Jones said.
One thing Jones didn’t want to discuss was why, if he indeed entertained trading Parsons as early as the spring, that didn’t occur prior to the draft.
In the end, Parsons was ‘an asset we got four great years out of.’
But it was the next four years that led to Jones throwing up the caution flag.
‘That’s quite a commitment,’ said Jones, referring to the deal Parsons sought, ‘and none of that counts about what he did for the first four years.’
Jones also confessed that his repeated comments about his lack of desire to trade Parsons was a negotiating tactic with other teams.
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“Do you really think if I wanted someone to be interested in (Parsons) I would say ‘Oh I want to trade him?’ It’s the opposite. And I thank you for writing it,” Jones said.
Jones recounted a quick story from the offseason when Parsons returned from an international trip straight to the Cowboys facility to talk business. According to Jones, Parsons wanted to talk brass tax that night, but Jones encouraged him to wait until the next morning. Stephen Jones was involved during the talks, he said.
“That was a very genuine negotiation, I changed the amounts, and then we left and he called back,” Jerry Jones said.
“Of course, the rest is history,’ Jones added. ‘When the time came to say let’s go, he said, well, let’s start the negotiation. Again, nothing in the world am I criticizing Micah at all.”
Jones, who said he still plans on negotiating with players, wouldn’t provide a timeframe but talked to Green Bay several times over several days, he said, but came to a head Thursday.
“I would say that certainly it was still up in the air (Thursday) morning,” he said.
What wasn’t up for debate, he said, was the consideration to trade Parsons “as a complete organization, that if we could get this done, with our terms, that we would make the trade.”
Playing Parsons would be ‘problematic,’ he said. ‘I suggest we get ahead and run the ball.’
Apparently, that’s what Jones wants.
‘I’m excited,’ Jones said. ‘We got what we wanted.
‘Things are good here.’