The Dallas Cowboys are trading All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for a compensation package of 2026 and 2027 first-round picks and three-time Pro Bowler Kenny Clark, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, Tom Pelissero and Jane Slater reported on Thursday.
The Cowboys subsequently announced the trade.
Upon arriving in Green Bay, Parsons will sign a four-year, $188 million deal with $136 million guaranteed that will make him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at $47 million per year, Rapoport, Pelissero and Slater added.
The stunning blockbuster trade finalizes a divorce between Parsons and the Cowboys that seemed all but impossible just weeks earlier, even amid a prolonged contract dispute that spilled over into the public eye and grew uglier with each passing week. While Dallas has notoriously developed a habit for waiting to pay its best players, a split between the two parties simply wasn't fathomable because of what was thought to be one simple truth: No team would willingly part with a player of Parsons' caliber, especially not as he's just entering his prime.
The Cowboys -- and their owner, Jerry Jones -- felt differently, obviously.
"We did think it was in the best interest of our organization," Jones said Thursday evening at an impromptu news conference to address the trade.
As he's done throughout the course of his nearly four decades spent as Cowboys owner (e.g., the 1989 Herschel Walker trade), Jones decided to go against the grain with this deal. In the staring contest between Parsons' representation and Jones, the world-famous owner refused to blink. When trade interest was leaked this week, Parsons told Slater he and his team went back to the Cowboys regarding an extension but were met with a response of, "play on the fifth year or leave."
The ripple effect of this decision could stretch far beyond the 2025 season.
"I never wanted this chapter to end, but not everything was in my control," Parsons said in a statement posted on social media. "My heart has always been here, and it still is. Through it all, I never made any demands. 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."
The Cowboys are willingly shipping out their best player -- a two-time All-Pro and three-time Defensive Player of the Year finalist in his four NFL seasons -- in exchange for draft capital, leaving a massive hole in a defense built on the back of No. 11's game-wrecking abilities. Gone is a player who tallied 52.5 sacks, 256 tackles, nine forced fumbles, nine passes defensed and four fumble recoveries in four seasons. Parsons occupies a rare place in modern football history as one of only three defenders to make the Pro Bowl in each of his first four campaigns, joining future Hall of Famers Aaron Donald and Patrick Peterson.
In return, Dallas receives ample capital while delivering a confusing message regarding the club's immediate ambition under first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer. Perhaps even more importantly to Cowboys leadership, by sending Parsons to Green Bay, Dallas is silencing the persistent noise that followed Parsons and the entire organization throughout 2025.
Thursday's deal between the Cowboys and Packers brings a conclusion to a saga that dragged through the offseason into training camp and the preseason. It included daily attendance updates, a detailed public trade request and even a controversy about whether he fell asleep on a sideline training table during Dallas' preseason finale. Throughout the prolonged drama, the football world expected the Cowboys and Parsons to eventually come to an agreement.
Instead, they're agreeing to go their separate ways.
Parsons joins a Green Bay defense that has attempted to beef up its pass-rushing unit over the last few years but hasn't seen consistent results, finishing 20th in the NFL in quarterback pressure rate (32.3%) last season, per Next Gen Stats. Rashan Gary has been the team's best quarterback hunter but clearly needs a running mate to allow the unit to blossom under defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.
Instead of acquiring a sidekick, Gary and the Packers are welcoming an apex predator into their den.
Meanwhile, after spending nine seasons with the Packers, Clark heads south to a Cowboys team that needed a proven veteran to beef up the defensive front. Over two seasons, the Cowboys haven't received anything near the return they expected when they drafted Michigan defensive tackle Mazi Smith in the first round in 2023. Though Smith survived final cuts this week, he spent much of the preseason playing into the second half of games and was seen as a weakness entering 2025.
Clark's arrival upgrades the position and solves the problem for 2025, in which he'll likely line up alongside Osa Odighizuwa along the Dallas defensive interior.
Parsons was the focus of the last notable contract dispute between a player and team this summer. Thursday's trade ends the dispute, adding Parsons to a group of formerly disgruntled players who received new or adjusted deals, including edge rushers Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt and Trey Hendrickson and receiver Terry McLaurin. Garrett, Hendrickson and McLaurin each requested trades, but worked out deals to stay put.
Parsons' trade and subsequent extension marks the fourth time the edge rusher market has been reset in 2025, a year in which the wildly active landscape produced new deals for Las Vegas' Maxx Crosby, Garrett and Watt, plus a one-year raise for Hendrickson.
The true gem of the group, though, was Parsons, a 26-year-old with limitless potential worth the sacrifice of two first-round picks in a deal that is the first Packers trade to include a first-round pick since they acquired Brett Favre from Atlanta in 1992. With roughly one week before the start of the regular season, Parsons will pack his bags and leave Dallas for his new digs, where expectations will skyrocket upon his arrival.
