A top-10 player in the NFL becoming available via trade almost never happens; talents of that caliber are usually treated as franchise cornerstones by their respective teams and treated as such from a contractual perspective. That is precisely what made the Micah Parsons situation so fascinating.
One of the best players in football, the Dallas Cowboys decided to move on from him rather than give him the contract extension he desired and deserved. And so, Parsons ended up as a Packer last week; Green
Bay gave up a pair of first-round draft picks plus defensive tackle Kenny Clark to bring him in.
On paper, that looks like a package the New England Patriots also might have been able to come up with in order to acquire Parsons. However, as head coach Mike Vrabel explained, the idea of going after the three-time All-Pro was never seriously discussed at Gillette Stadium.
“He’s a dynamic player, great player. But that wasn’t something that we really invested a lot of time or resources in,” Vrabel said during an appearance on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show on Tuesday. “When you just try to look at what we feel like is best for us right now, that wasn’t entertaining that specific transaction.”
In theory, Parsons would have been a tremendous fit for what the Patriots are hoping to build on defense. He is a versatile presence on the defensive edge and plays the game with the urgency and physicality Vrabel and coordinator Terrell Williams are looking for; he also has been super productive ever since entering the league as a first-round selection in the 2021 draft.
However, the team knew right away that Parsons’ eventual price tag was not compatible with its own vision for a rebuild. That reason alone kept New England from going after the 26-year-old.
“We just have to be very smart on building this thing, and I hope that everybody else sees it the same way outside of here,” Vrabel explained. “We want to bring in players that feel like give us the best chance. But also, we have to build some depth there to this roster, and to do that from the draft and — we’ll call it what it is — it hasn’t been real great. The depth of the roster has not been through our draft the last handful of years, and that has to change. We all know that. We’ll focus on that when we get there in April.
“Right now, it’s putting guys in roles that have some versatility and building the game-day roster and all these different things. But I think the best teams in the league draft well. They develop their players, they re-sign them, and then they carefully choose the players that they want to add in free agency.”
