
The Dallas Cowboys beat the Green Bay Packers to the punch on Micah Parsons trade press conferences. While the Packers won’t address the media until later on Friday, the Cowboys held their post-trade media availability on Thursday night.
So that you don’t have to sit through the full 46-minute presser, which included an 11-minute answer from owner Jerry Jones to kick it off (I wish I were joking), we’ll walk you through the important details of the press conference from a Packers perspective.
First of all, Jones confirmed that the team was still on the fence about whether a trade would or wouldn’t happen as early as last morning, one reason why Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark, who the Cowboys received in the trade, practiced with Green Bay on Thursday.
Speaking of Clark…he was apparently a big part of the trade with Dallas. According to Jones’ account, the Cowboys only engaged with teams who would be willing to trade them a quality defensive tackle in exchange for Parsons. This is speculation on my end, but I’m guessing that they were specifically in the nose tackle market, as former first-round pick Mazi Smith (337 pounds) has busted. Meanwhile, the Cowboys gave Osa Odighizuwa (280 pounds) a four-year, $80 million contract this offseason.
Jones talked nonstop about how Clark was going to be able to help them improve on run defense. Stephen Jones, Jerry’s son, who serves as the executive vice president, CEO and director of player personnel for Dallas, then added that you can manufacture pass-rush in a way that you can’t manufacture run defense.
We’ll see about that in Week 4 when Parsons takes on his former team.
Jerry later admitted that Dallas had been thinking about a Parsons trade since the spring, denied reports of Parsons being on the trade block to raise their asking price for him and even said he will continue to have direct owner-to-player negotiations over contracts moving forward, citing a time that he got a deal done with receiver Michael Irvin by essentially frustating him until he signed an extension. Good God, I am so glad the Packers don’t have an owner.
Near the end of the press conference, Jerry stated, “Make no mistake, we all knew we could sign Micah, but we decided to go with a trade.” All these facts are consistent with APC’s report on Thursday, which stated that Parsons ideally wanted to be a Cowboy, but wanted to be paid first and foremost. The ball was always in Jones’ court. He chose to punt it.
Good luck to Clark! He had a solid run of nine seasons and ten offseasons with the Packers, earning three Pro Bowls after being picked 27th overall in 2016. The big surprise, though, is that he was a foundational piece of the trade, at least according to Jones, despite Clark being a likely cap casualty by Green Bay in 2026.
If you want to sit through the full press conference, you can find the video linked below: