All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons has requested a trade from the Dallas Cowboys amid a public dispute over his contract.
Whether there is any real chance he is traded is very much up for debate, with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones already indicating he has no interest in trading their best defensive player and that the request is simply part of negotiations.
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If he is truly available, there is not a team in the NFL, including the Green Bay Packers, who could not benefit from adding him to their roster, but will the Packers make a call? And if there is a deal to be done, will they do it?
Parsons would command a king’s ransom if he were to be traded. The last comparable premier pass rusher to be moved was Khalil Mack from the Raiders to the Bears back in 2018.
Mack was 27 years old at the time, a year older than Parsons is now, and the Raiders received two first-round picks, a third and a sixth for Mack, a second-rounder and a fifth.
Giving up premium draft capital in trades like this is a big decision, and when asked about that very subject at the conclusion of the 2024 season, Packers GM Brian Gutekunst summed up the dilemma well.
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He said: “You better be right. When you trade a high pick for a veteran player, you’re trading a young, really good contract for a player who’s proven, but probably expensive, so you’re giving up a pick and salary cap space, so you’ve gotta weigh that.
“If it’s the right player, if you feel he can be a dynamic player that can change your football team, you’ve gotta consider that because there’s not many of those guys out there, but you also have to understand what you’re giving up.”
It was reported the Packers were heavily involved in the Mack sweepstakes in 2018, so there is at least some evidence to suggest the team would be interested in making an aggressive move to acquire a talent like Parsons.
In terms of arguments for Green Bay pulling the trigger on a hypothetical trade, there are several motivating factors.
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First and foremost, Green Bay’s pass rush looked surprisingly labored at times in 2024, especially from the front four, with defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley having to get creative to heat up opposing quarterbacks.
Parsons would instantly supercharge the Packers’ ability to disrupt opposing offenses. The risk of him suddenly not looking like the same game-wrecking player he was with the Cowboys seems close to nil.
Having just turned 26, he has not hit his prime yet, so there is more runway for Parsons to justify the picks spent to bring him in and return the kind of value an acquiring team would want.
This is a different situation than trading for a 30-year-old pass rusher like Trey Hendrickson or T.J. Watt, although the cost for Parsons would be significantly more.
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For as strong and deep of a roster as Gutekunst has assembled since moving on from Aaron Rodgers and entering the Jordan Love era, it can certainly be argued the Packers lack truly elite players.
Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney may be their only truly established star players, and both of them were brought in via free agency. If Parsons is really on the market, the Packers should absolutely consider it.
On the flipside, Gutekunst’s point about the cost of this type of trade is a salient one. Giving up not only draft capital but a top of the market contract would have a huge impact on how Green Bay has to approach team building in future seasons, with fewer cost-controlled contracts.
Based on the current projections for the 2026 salary cap, the Packers are set to be just $2 million in the black, although according to Ken Ingalls’ calculations, they currently have around $17.5 million in effective cap space which they could carry forward to next year.
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If the Packers traded for Parsons and signed him to a lucrative contract, they could make it work by keeping the cap hits in the early years of the deal low, but it would still make things tight and restrict their ability to retain other players.
Gutekunst has made it quite clear they hope to keep Quay Walker around long term, and doing so may cost up to $15m per year.
The Packers are already pretty maxed out in terms of investments in the defensive front.
Their top four of Rashan Gary, Kenny Clark, Devonte Wyatt and Lukas Van Ness were all first-round picks, with Gary and Clark two of the team’s highest earners (although the team can get out of both contracts next year) and Wyatt recently having his $13 million fifth-year option picked up.
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Trading for Parsons could essentially mean giving up on Van Ness, the former 13th overall pick who appears to have made real progress this summer ahead of his third season. That does not seem like something the ‘draft and develop’ Packers are going to do.
Parsons is a prominent and outspoken media figure, hosting his own podcast, on which has reportedly drawn the ire of his teammates at times due to his comments. There is a chance the Packers do not see him as a culture fit for their locker room.
Ultimately, a trade for Parsons is unlikely to happen to any team. He does not have much leverage to force his way out of Dallas, and the team wants to keep him.
Gutekunst’s comments in January are a helpful reminder of how rare trades like this are.
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He said: “I’m trying to think how many times we’ve done that around here. There was one, Favre, they traded a first-round pick for him, but I’m trying to think if we’ve traded any first-round picks since I’ve been here for a player.
“It doesn’t happen a lot at all, but certainly if that player can impact our football team in a significant way, you have to consider that.”
Even if Parsons is actually allowed to leave the Cowboys, which is unlikely, he would have to approve a move to the Packers, essentially agreeing to a contract with them beforehand, and the team would also have to be the winners of a potentially intense bidding war.
As Gutekunst said himself, it is something they would have to consider, but expectations of Parsons ending up wearing green and gold should be kept extremely low.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Will Packers pursue Micah Parsons trade? Arguments for and against