Except Jones is, in fact, that crazy. And he wasn’t just drumming up drama as usual.

Hours later, Jones sent Parsons packing to the Packers for their next two first-round picks and 29-year-old defensive tackle Kenny Clark. The Packers quickly did what Jones long refused to, giving Parsons a four-year, $188 million contract with $120 million fully guaranteed, per reports. The $47 million annual value blows away the previous record for a non-quarterback, $41 million per year for the Steelers’ T.J. Watt set this offseason.

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The trade had Cowboys players tweeting broken heart emojis and statements such as “WTF,” while the NFL community dropped its collective jaw that Jones traded a three-time All-Pro and one of the most disruptive defenders in the game. Parsons leads the NFL in pressures (335) and pressure rate (21.1 percent) since entering the league in 2021. The Cowboys may not be a top contender in 2025, but there’s no reason they can’t be a playoff team.

“It’s virtually unheard of to have a 26-year-old pass rusher in the prime of his career available in a trade,” tweeted former Jets and Dolphins general manager Mike Tannenbaum.

Jones and his son, Stephen, held a 45-minute news conference on Thursday night trying to justify the move.

“This was a move to get us successful in the playoffs,” Jones said. “It was a deliberate move, a well-thought-out move to make this happen.”

Jerry Jones explains why the Dallas Cowboys traded Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers.

“We’ve gained a Pro Bowl player [in an area the Cowboys had concerns in].”

“We need to stop the run. We haven’t been able to stop the run at key times for several years.”🏈🎙️ #NFL pic.twitter.com/P9r8ZFKxK2

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 28, 2025

Except none of Jones’s explanations hold up to much scrutiny.

Jones claimed that this trade was about improving the Cowboys’ run defense, which ranked 29th last year and allowed a league-high 25 touchdowns. Yes, Clark is a three-time Pro Bowler, but is Jones trying to sell us that Parsons was the problem? If Jones was truly concerned about the run defense, he had March to June to address it. It’s hard to see how trading Parsons in late August will benefit the 2025 Cowboys.

Jones also claimed that the Cowboys couldn’t build a proper team with so much money sunk into one player — i.e., he couldn’t afford Parsons.

“You do have to allocate your resources, whether it be draft picks or whether it be finances,” Jones said. “We can take that available cap room we were going to use for Micah, and we can pay three to five players with that.”

The Cowboys do have Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb on large deals, but this argument is nonsense. Cap space is easily fungible. And the Cowboys are the world’s most valuable franchise at $13 billion, per the latest Forbes estimates. They could easily pay Parsons what he wanted, play with the salary-cap numbers, and field a competitive team. Or they could have just kept him and forced him to play out his contract this year, which paid him $24 million.

Jones even audaciously compared this trade to the famous Herschel Walker trade from 1989 that netted the Cowboys eight draft picks, including three firsts and three seconds, and launched their 1990s dynasty.

“A little bit of the way Herschel Walker may have had his greatest contribution to the Cowboys, what [Parsons] brought to us when he left could be a tremendous thing for our fans and the success of this team,” Jones said.

This argument is empty, too. The return on this trade is marginal — Clark turns 30 in October, and the Packers’ first-round picks are likely to be in the mid-20s or lower.

“If Dallas had made the decision in March to trade Micah Parsons, the compensation would’ve been significantly higher because more teams would’ve had the time, cap space to offer more to Dallas,” Tannenbaum said.

No, it seems clear what this trade was all about — Jones messing up. He probably could have had Parsons for less than $40 million per year had he paid Parsons after the 2023 season. Jones then let the negotiations fester for 1½ years, and destroyed his relationship with Parsons by trying to negotiate directly with him and freeze out his agent, David Mulugheta.

“I did make Micah an offer. It wasn’t acceptable, and I honor the fact that it wasn’t done in the way that he wanted to do it through an agent,” Jones said.

Parsons had every right to demand a trade and refuse to practice during training camp. Jones may have made his fortune with handshake agreements, but his tactics here were highly inappropriate and a flagrant violation of the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement.

Then with the season only 10 days away, Jones panicked and traded his star player for 75 cents on the dollar.

“Through it all, I never made any demands,” Parsons said. “I never asked for anything more than fairness. I only asked that the person I trust to negotiate my contract be part of the process.”

Thirty-one other NFL GMs would get fired for making this trade, or get laughed out of the room by their owner before having a chance to execute it.

But Jones is his own boss, and Cowboys fans have to live with it, as they have for 30 years since their last NFC Championship game appearance.

Jones let contract negotiations with Parsons fester for years and destroyed his relationship with Parsons by trying to negotiate directly with him and freeze out his agent, David Mulugheta.Brian Westerholt/Associated Press

SHORT-TERM RESOLUTIONS

While the Micah Parsons trade was a shock, the two other significant contract holdouts from the summer ended in expected fashion.

Bengals pass rusher Trey Hendrickson and Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin skipped voluntary spring workouts, held out for the start of training camp, requested a trade, and refused to practice during camp. But they ultimately didn’t have much leverage, and both caved this past week, agreeing to modest pay raises and returning to practice on Wednesday.

The problem for all NFL players is that the CBA is stacked against them. It enables teams to fine a player $50,000 for each day of training camp he skips, and to suspend players and withhold salaries, and force repayment of signing bonus money if they hold out of regular-season games. If a team digs in, it’s a no-win situation for the players.

“Unfortunately for me I can’t write my own contracts,” Hendrickson told reporters. “I’m humbled by the experience.”

Hendrickson can make up to $30 million this year with incentives, an increase from his original pay of $16 million. But he will still be a free agent after this season, highlighting the hesitation the Bengals have in investing in a 31-year-old pass rusher, even though his 43 sacks the last three seasons are second only to Myles Garrett’s 44.

“The priority was always [playing for] the 2025 Bengals, whatever this looked like,” Hendrickson said. “It was unfortunate that it took so long, but we’re here.”

McLaurin reportedly got a raise from $19.1 million this year to $29 million. But he was seeking well over $30 million per year, and the lack of details on his contract raise suspicion that he didn’t get much security past this season. McLaurin is coming off a career-high 13 touchdown catches, but the Commanders were also hesitant to invest too much in a receiver who turns 30 in two weeks.

“There’s a deal in place that keeps me here that I’m extremely happy about,” McLaurin said.

Now the teams and players should be careful about jumping right into Week 1 with just two weeks of practice. They are ripe for hamstring injuries and groin pulls that come without a proper ramp-up to activity.

And these protracted holdouts don’t portend well for the season. The Bengals and 49ers had similar contract holdouts in training camp in recent years — Tee Higgins, Ja’Marr Chase, Brandon Aiyuk, Trent Williams — and in each case the player and team got off to a slow start that doomed the season. The Bengals and Commanders should have gotten these deals with Hendrickson and McLaurin done weeks ago.

Terry McLaurin reportedly got a raise from $19.1 million this year to $29 million.Hannah Foslien/For The Washington Post

INTRIGUE IN HOUSTON

Joe Mixon was one of the Texans’ leaders on offense last year, gaining 1,325 total yards and scoring 12 touchdowns. But he apparently did something this offseason to tick off his bosses.

Mixon hasn’t suited up because of an offseason ankle injury. Not a peep has emerged on how the injury happened, but it caused the Texans to put Mixon on the non-football injury list at the start of training camp. Six weeks later, Mixon is still on NFI, which means he has to miss at least the first four games of the season.

GM Nick Caserio wouldn’t even commit to Mixon playing at all this year, saying, “We’ll see. We’ll take it one day at a time.” The Texans also signed veteran Nick Chubb in June.

The NFI list is for players who get injured away from the team facility. Sometimes it’s just from working out on their own, and other times it’s for doing something the player shouldn’t be doing.

The NFI list allows a team to reduce or withhold a player’s salary. For an important veteran such as Mixon, a team often doesn’t go down this road. The fact that the Texans did sparks intrigue into what really happened.

Joe Mixon hasn’t suited up because of an offseason ankle injury.Barry Chin/Globe Staff

ETC.

Those TB12 gyms are no longer in existence, and it’s been a while since anyone has talked about pliability and nightshades. But guess who’s back in the NFL thanks to his connection to minority owner Tom Brady?

The Raiders employ a head athletic trainer and a director of rehabilitation, but they also employ Alex Guerrero as the team’s “wellness coordinator,” where he “oversees several departments to ensure and enhance the health and well-being of players, coaches, and staff,” per the team website.

Guerrero has been Brady’s longtime fitness and nutrition guru who once had full access to Gillette Stadium and the Patriots’ sideline to work with Brady. But Guerrero ran afoul of Bill Belichick by, in Belichick’s opinion, pressuring too many players to work with him and undermining the Patriots’ strength and conditioning staff. Belichick revoked Guerrero’s inside access in late 2017, adding to the growing rift between Belichick and Brady.

But Raiders owner Mark Davis, GM John Spytek, and coach Pete Carroll reportedly all signed off on Guerrero’s employment, though the latter two probably didn’t have much choice with Brady calling the shots.

“We’ve always talked about if we ever had the opportunity to kind of do it at the team level, that we would love to do that,” Guerrero told The Athletic. “I’m just sharing with [the training staff] some of the philosophies that worked for Tom and I over the years.”

The NFL made a significant rule change this offseason to move the kickoff touchback to the 35-yard line, with hope that it will increase the number of returns.

The data from 49 preseason games is in. And while teams were likely hesitant to reveal all their tactics, the numbers were promising for the NFL.

The league saw 469 kickoffs in the preseason, and achieved a touchback percentage of just 20.4, compared with 64.3 percent last regular season and 73 percent in 2023.

A whopping 78.3 percent of kicks were returned, up from 32.8 percent last year and 21.8 percent in 2023.

While the regular season will undoubtedly see more touchbacks and fewer returns, fans should expect to see a lot more kickoff returns this fall. The average starting field position after kickoffs was the 30.1-yard line in the preseason. That’s still 5 yards better than a touchback.

One surprise release for the Patriots was rookie defensive end Bradyn Swinson, who was drafted with pick 5-146. Swinson was re-signed to the practice squad, and he can still be called up to the active roster, but cutting a fifth-round pick in his rookie season is not common.

Per Jason Fitzgerald from OverTheCap.com, Swinson is the highest-drafted player not to make an initial 53-man roster in two years (the Colts’ Darius Rush, pick 5-138 in 2023).

The Rams last week released linebacker Chris “Pooh” Paul (pick 5-172), who then signed with the Seahawks’ practice squad. Per the Elias Sports Bureau and NFL communications, 209 of 257 draft picks this year made initial 53-man rosters.

Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice will miss the first six games, after all, after accepting a suspension this past week in relation to the high-speed car crash he caused on a Dallas highway. It first appeared that Rice would be able to play in the Chiefs’ four nationally televised games to start the season before his Sept. 29 hearing. But Rice took the six games now because he probably would have ended up with eight or more had he gone through with the hearing … Bailey Zappe got cut by the Chiefs at the end of training camp but ended up in a decent spot, signing with the Browns’ practice squad. Zappe knows the coaches, having spent the last 2½ months of 2024 in Cleveland (with one start). And the Browns’ quarterback depth chart is so bad that it offers a decent chance for Zappe to get on the field. It can’t be a good sign for third-stringer Shedeur Sanders that the Browns felt the need to sign a fourth quarterback with starting experience … This year’s Germany game goes to Berlin for the first time, a tilt between the Colts and Falcons in Week 10. The game will be played on Nov. 9, which happens to be the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. NFL executive vice president Peter O’Reilly said, “It’s certainly a powerful and important date in so many ways, but it was not intentional.” … Interesting that Mike Vrabel has preached for eight months how everyone has to “earn a role.” Yet when it comes to Kyle Dugger, who is probably only still with the Patriots because of his $9.75 million fully guaranteed salary, Vrabel said, “I think he can help us, and obviously, find a role.” I’d be surprised if Dugger is still a Patriot by season’s end … The NFL is invading the Atlantic Coast Conference with coaches — Bill Belichick (North Carolina), Bill O’Brien (Boston College), and Frank Reich (Stanford) … It sure sounds like Darrelle Revis is gearing up to make a run for the vacant NFLPA executive director position previously held by Lloyd Howell … The Cardinals have started a first-round pick on the physically unable to perform list for two straight years — pass rusher Darius Robinson and defensive tackle Walter Nolen, both with calf injuries. … Get this: Brady and the Raiders waived a sixth-round rookie quarterback, though they brought Cam Miller (pick 6-215) back on the practice squad.

Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.