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FRISCO — Jerry Jones would like for you and Micah Parsons to know he wishes nothing but the best for maybe the best defensive player he ever drafted and can’t understand why everyone thinks he’s obsessed with him, even if he talks about him all the time and brought him up unprovoked in his first answer Wednesday at The Star.
Turns out Jerry doesn’t mean the person, per se, when he says “Micah Parsons.”
What he means is “Herschel Walker.”
Let me translate: In Wednesday’s exit presser, Jerry attempted to deflect attention from another season short of the playoffs by selling the prospect of a sequel to the epic Herschel deal. If you’re old enough to remember when the Cowboys used to play into late January, you may recall the manner in which Jerry and Jimmy Johnson fleeced the Vikings’ Mike Lynn in 1989. They sent Walker to Minnesota for a package that eventually became eight draft picks, which then became Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson, Russell Maryland and Kevin Smith, a significant chunk of the foundation for those Lombardi Trophies in the lobby of The Star.
“The very best of what we were trying to get involving the Micah Parsons trade,” Jerry said Wednesday, “is all out there ahead of us. We’ve got some of it on the field already.
“We’re going to get more of it on the field.”
He’s got his work cut out for him if that’s the case, because Mike Lynn is dead, and no one else is likely to be as generous these days.
Consider what he’s gotten so far. Besides Kenny Clark, the defensive tackle, the Cowboys got two first-round picks, one of which they may have to spend in the Quinnen Williams deal, depending on which of their 2027 firsts is higher. Williams also cost the Cowboys a second-rounder this year.
Unless the Cowboys trade their Packers pick this year, they’ll end up with a couple of late-stage defensive tackles and a late first-rounder this spring.
Does that sound like the Herschel Walker haul to you?
Me, neither.
Must not sound like it to Jerry, either, because he also told us there was “zero chance” he could have traded for George Pickens if they’d kept Parsons. Claims they wouldn’t have had the financial flexibility under the cap.
Maybe next year that would be true, but not this year. Not when Pickens only cost $3.6 million in the last year of his deal. He’ll make eight times that next year if they use the franchise tag and even more if they give him a multi-year deal like they give all of the other playmakers on offense.
Jerry has been hawking this potential Parsons bonanza for months, at one point telling us the Cowboys could end up with as many as five players in place of the money they would have spent on Parsons, who signed a four-year, $188 million deal with the Packers after the trade. Not sure how the math works. Clark and Williams will make a combined $43 million next season. Parsons’ cap hit next year is $19 million. His salary doesn’t escalate significantly until 2028, when he’s due $43 million, and ‘29, when the Packers are on the hook for $73 million.
Here’s the way I see the Parsons deal: In effect, Jerry traded an in-his-prime generational talent at the most important position on defense as well as first- and second-round picks for a late first-rounder, a good defensive tackle and a better one, though his best season by far came three years ago.
The Cowboys’ run defense, long a sore point, has benefitted from the presence of Williams and Clark. But that doesn’t make up for the lack of a pass rush, as any scorched member of the secondary will tell you.
If you think it’s all a wash because the Cowboys’ defense wasn’t good with Parsons, either, let’s make sure we put the blame where it belongs. Matt Eberflus wasn’t a good fit this season, but the real problem is he didn’t have enough good players to work with. Williams made his fourth Pro Bowl this season.
Otherwise, of the defensive players the Cowboys have drafted in the last 15 years, DaRon Bland is the only one remaining who’s ever made a single Pro Bowl.
Meanwhile, four drafted members of the offense – Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Tyler Smith and Jake Ferguson – were named to Pro Bowl rosters. Four offensive players made it this year alone.
No wonder, then, that the offense performed at such a high level while the defense, well, stunk.
How come the Cowboys are so good at drafting offensive players but not so much on defense?
“I don’t know that I can put a finger on why,” Stephen Jones said Wednesday. “It’s certainly something we want to change, starting with this draft.
“We’ve gotta be better.”
They could only dream of hitting it as big with the 12th pick this year as they did in 2021, when they traded down and took a Penn State linebacker as consolation for missing out on Patrick Surtain II. Worked out pretty great for a while, but it won’t work out “Herschel Walker” great in the long run. Even an old carnival barker can’t sell that.
Twitter/X: @KSherringtonDMN
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