The Dallas Cowboys are living in the post-Micah Parsons era now, with the former first-round pick being introduced by the Packers on Friday, and the player they got in return Kenny Clark arriving at The Star to meet his new coaches, teammates, and address the media. It is rare that a move this close to the start of the season completely changes the tenor of two teams, even more so in the same conference, and even rarer for it to include the Cowboys.
Once again, Dallas are the center of attention for
all of the wrong reasons, as negative reactions to losing Parsons have understandably poured in from all directions. The Packers now have a piece on defense that takes a young roster which has contended in the playoffs for the last two seasons and adds legitimacy to Green Bay making a deeper run, something Parsons was never a part of in four years in Dallas. The Cowboys lack this premier pass rush talent now, but are insistent their return in the trade to focus on run defense with Kenny Clark paired with two first-round picks is the right football decision.
The Cowboys prioritizing the draft as the lifeblood of their roster construction is nothing new at all, and the trade compensation for Parsons was always going to net them valuable picks as part of the package. Cowboys fans have been quick to dismiss the notion that trading Parsons for picks makes much sense at all, because to state the obvious, Parsons was already one of the best possible examples of a Cowboys draft pick hitting. The idea that they would give up Parsons’ proven production just to earn two additional lottery tickets that could yield them a similar player to Parsons is an easy one to use as fuel for the fire that’s currently burning through the fanbase pointed straight at the front office.
This is where Clark being part of the trade becomes even more crucial, but not just for the merits of who the former first-rounder is on the field. The Cowboys were reportedly only considering trading Parsons to teams where a quality interior tackle could be part of the return. It was a serious move at upgrading defensive tackle and lifting the run defense, but the fact it took trading away Parsons to do so is a giant leap into the deep end of how this situation could have unfolded.
Clark will turn 30 in the second month of the upcoming season, and while his ironman reputation as a player that hardly comes off the field means he could still have plenty left in the tank, the same can be said in a much more concise way about Parsons still having a potential Hall of Fame level career ahead of him. Trying to find ways the Cowboys can “win” this trade goes beyond just Clark and the next two first-round picks, then. The Cowboys must show that Clark is just one step in the right direction of fielding a better run defense.
He will join rookie Jay Toia, Osa Odighizuwa, Solomon Thomas, Perrion Winfrey, and Mazi Smith as the Cowboys defensive tackles on the current roster. Odighizuwa was taken care of contractually soon after the Cowboys brought back Matt Eberflus to be defensive coordinator, one that heavily prioritizes the 3-technique position Odighizuwa plays. Odighizuwa and Toia seem to be the most long-term set pieces at DT next to Clark now, with Thomas and Winfrey only under contract through 2026. Thomas turned 30 earlier this week and has never quite been the player he was expected to as a first-round pick back in 2017. Winfrey did very well to make the Cowboys roster as a UFL signing in the offseason, but still faces an uphill battle to earn his playing time throughout the year and prove he can make a consistent impact. This too is his second chance in the NFL, after being drafted in 2022 but out of the league by 2023.
There is another problem even with this more specific logic as it pertains to the details of the Parsons trade though. Defensive tackle Mazi Smith, the 26th overall pick in 2023 by the Cowboys. Smith will go into year three yet to make anything close to the type of impact a first-round pick is expected to make, in the very area the Cowboys are now banking on veteran Kenny Clark to help them.
Smith still being on the Cowboys roster after cutdowns is even a surprise to some, who expected a third defensive scheme change in three years to be one too many for Smith to survive. By Smith still being on the roster, his name on the depth chart sticks out like a sore thumb as an example that Dallas really, truly could have had the best of both worlds with Parsons. They stepped out of their comfort zone to draft a run-stuffing defensive tackle with their first-round pick, and that did not sure up the run defense. Smith starting his career playing under Dan Quinn’s more pass-rush oriented scheme likely did not help this cause, but this is still a first-round pick that needs to be much more noticeable on gamedays to justify this draft status. Either under Quinn or Mike Zimmer, Smith has not been this guy.
If the Smith pick had panned out even just a little bit more up to this point, and the Cowboys felt much better about the situation at 1-technique because of it, there would have been less of an escape hatch for the front office to use in moving on from Parsons. Less of a glaring need on the roster to add a player at and hope the excitement of doing so drowns out the frustration of losing an All-Pro in the process, which of course it has not. All that would have been left to trade Parsons was ego and hurt feelings from the Jones’, and while that alone hasn’t stopped them in the past, it’s also just as possible this hypothetical could have bought some amount of time for Parsons and the Cowboys to come together one more time and work out a deal. Considering the Packers may not have even blown the Cowboys contractual offer to Parsons out of the water to acquire him, this is a possibility that has to be considered.
Somewhere in an alternate reality, the Cowboys feel good about their run defense thanks in part to Mazi Smith, and great about their pass rush thanks to Micah Parsons. Instead, the play they can expect from Smith is still a mystery going into 2025, and the pass rush lacks a player even half as intimidating as Parsons off the edge.
The Cowboys playing the run well comes down to more than just defensive tackles too. Names like Marshawn Kneeland at defensive end, or Jack Sanborn, Kenneth Murray, and Marist Liufau at linebacker, and Donovan Wilson or Markquese Bell at safety will join in on the effort. Naturally, this means that the Cowboys have had opportunities in more ways than one to address their run defense, and while on paper this group currently looks like one of their better approaches to doing so, their recent history leaves so much to be desired.
Trading away star players days before the season begins to improve the run defense is hardly a sound strategy that can be repeated on a yearly basis. Losing Parsons for the sake of getting better here has to work in a way that will require multiple dominos all falling perfectly to work over the next four seasons (the amount of time QB Dak Prescott and HC Brian Schottenheimer are under contract in Dallas, as well as Parsons now on his extension in Green Bay).
The Cowboys have already shown this offseason they are willing to use more than just the draft to bring in players, with free agent and trade acquisitions expected throughout the starting lineup against the Eagles. The draft remains a heavy focus though, and it’s hard to ignore how the scales have tipped even more towards the Cowboys being a draft-centric team after a trade that nets them multiple first-round picks for the first time since 2008. The fact that their most recent first-round attempt to shore up the run defense is inching closer to unanimously being considered a bust does not bode well towards the selling points this organization is after for how they came out on top in the Parsons trade.
Of all the defensive linemen that could use a splash play for the Cowboys against the Eagles on Thursday night, Mazi Smith now finds himself near the top of the list. Smith finds himself in this unfortunate position (along with Clark as well to some extent), thanks to the latest brash decision by the very same front office to no longer do business with Micah Parsons. For better or worse, this former Cowboys first-round draft pick going into the second to last year of his deal will forever be tangentially linked to one of the most shocking trades in recent NFL history between the Cowboys and Packers.
