'WORST TRADE IN COWBOYS HISTORY!' 😳 - Dan Orlovsky GOES OFF on Micah Parsons to Green Bay | Get Up

least around the sports world and maybe beyond that the Cowboys sending superstar pass rusher Micah Parsons to the Packers in exchange for defensive tackle Kenny Clark and Green Bay's first round picks in each of the next 2 drafts Parsons that agrees to a four-year $188 million contract that includes a 120 million fully guaranteed at signing

136 million total guaranteed making him the highest paid non quarterback in NFL history. The aftermath Micah Parsons releasing a statement saying in part I never wanted this chapter to win, but not everything was in my control 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 ask that the person I trust to negotiate my contract be part of the process. This is a sad day, but not a bitter one. That's his side. Now we hear from Jerry Jones and Cowboys legend, Michael Irvin.

This gives us a better chance to be a better team than we have been the last several years. Since Micah's been here, not any negative on Micah, but we're trying to get better. We're trying to stop the run and stay in the hunt. I'm very, very excited about the prospects

of what we've done for the Cowboys here. We got what we wanted. Ain't no mistake about it. We all know we could have signed Micah. But we decided to go with the track.

This is a dark and sad day for Cowboys Nation and the Dallas Cowboys. But as much as I love Michael Parsons, and I hope the best for him and his family, this

is a real sad day.

Okay, I'm going to walk you through how we're going to do this.

Shepty and Gras were right in the middle of this all day long, breaking this news.

Shout out to Shefty and Gras!

Late in the afternoon yesterday, along with outstanding work by Todd Archer as well, right? Our guy in Dallas and everything else. So we're going to start by walking you through exactly how this happened, and then we will get to the aftermath. Shefty, I'll start with you. Take as much time as you need. How in the world did we get from where we were to where we are this morning? I think we go back to the spring,

to when Jerry Jones had a handshake deal in his mind the way that he once had a handshake deal to buy the Dallas Cowboys. When he met with Micah Parsons and shook hands on a deal that averaged $40.5 million in the spring, Jerry Jones thought they had a deal, but Micah Parsons didn't. And when Micah went back

to his agent to apprise him of what they had discussed, the agent didn't want any part of a deal that was supposed to be a five-year contract and from that point on the Dallas Cowboys and Micah Parsons never once negotiated another contract. So if we are looking for when the time with Micah and the Dallas Cowboys came to an unofficial end, it would be when Jerry Jones felt like he had a handshake agreement at that point in time. After that, there was silence, there were quotes that hurt feelings, there was Micah issuing a public trade request in early August.

There was Micah experiencing back tightness, Micah in California this week for a second opinion on his back. And there was zero sign or zero hope of any deal coming together to keep Micah in Dallas for the long term. Micah and his representatives reached out about a week ago to see if Dallas would be interested in moving forward and they were not.

So if they're not moving forward with a long term deal, then clearly Jerry Jones at that point in time would have some interest in having Micah play out his contract with the Dallas Cowboys, which Micah Parsons never was going to do, and thus other teams began calling. Now I'm told there were multiple suitors for Micah Parsons, but in a way it feels a little bit like it was with the Dallas Mavericks and Luka Donkic who traded him to the Lakers and really only spoke intensely with the

Lakers. Now there may have been intense negotiations and trade talks with other teams. I'm unaware of them right now. I think there were other teams that inquired but it seems like Green Bay was the only team that got real serious and Bay Packers yesterday. If the Packers knew and the Cowboys knew that this deal was getting done yesterday, Kenny Clark would not be practicing, but he did practice. And in the end, later in the the afternoon the Cowboys and Packers agree

to a deal Micah agrees to a deal and Micah gets in his new deal a hundred eighty eight million dollars forty eight more million dollars than Jerry Jones once paid for the Dallas Cowboys when he had a handshake agreement to buy them for a hundred and forty million dollars. All right that's an outstanding roadmap and Graziano you were here with me yesterday and I got the sense from you long before we went on the air that something had changed.

And you said it on the air here yesterday. This thing has taken a turn, and it's coming to a head. I don't think you expected it to happen as quickly as it did,

but you knew something was coming.

Yeah, I think as of yesterday, like even like as like two o'clock in the afternoon yesterday, it still was, it felt like it was heading in this kind of direction, but no one was sure it was going to land here. I think at that point, um, and Adam, correct me if I'm wrong, but at that point, I think the agent had been in contact with the Packers with the Cowboys permission, right? You know, to talk about what the contract would look like. But still at that point I think both sides were kind of thinking like, alright we're not sure this is going to happen.

And to Adam's point, Micah had already gone to see the back doctor in California and so that was setting up for a dispute if no trade happened and no extension happened and Micah was going to say I'm not healthy enough to play. So the Packers moved very quickly yesterday afternoon to get this done. I think the price in terms of compensation going back to the Cowboys wasn't really hard to arrive at. They were always going to be looking for

multiple first-round picks and a defensive player that could help because they were trading away their best defensive player. So I think once it got back to Micah Parsons, hey here's the contract, here's the team, are you good with this? I think it probably came together pretty quickly after that. But yeah, as of yesterday morning,

this is what it sounded like. The Packers and Cowboys had been in contact with each other. We knew it was a possibility that this could happen, but there were still a couple of different ways it could go. And Adam makes a great point about Kenny Clark wouldn't have been out there practicing if they knew he was in a trade You saw on your screen a few moments ago the Packers play the Cowboys week for interesting year for Green Bay a few weeks after That they will play Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers

So there's some games to circle before I get to the football players who were chomping at the bit Let me get the general manager in here because you and I've been talking about this at great length I said back in March, the Cowboys could consider, maybe even should consider, trading Micah Parsons rather than resigning him, because this doesn't feel like a Super Bowl team to me, and you could try and turn him into the Herschel Walker of this generation. They didn't do that.

In your mind, what did that lead to happening yesterday?

It is inconceivable, Green, how they did this. It was a massive strategic mistake. They can pour themselves for much of the offseason like

they're trying to win.

They go out and get George Pickens on a one year deal. They let other players leave like the Marcus Lawrence Jordan Lewis because you have Micah Parsons.

Look at this graphic. When you have Micah Parsons you're going to build around him. You're trying to win now. You signed C.D. Lamb to an extension. You signed Dak Prescott to extension all recently because you're trying to win. So on the offensive side you're trying to win now and you have a

new offensive coach in Brian Schottenheimer. On the other side of the ball you move on from these players that you would have kept.

Some of the moves they make feel like win now moves and then trading him away for two first round picks, which by the way, don't figure to be very high picks, feels like the opposite of that. And so in your mind, if a dollar is worth 100 cents, what did they get for him in this trade?

60 cents on the dollar. And let me bring up two teams in particular, You're moving into a new stadium and you have a chance to get a transformational player. This is the best player outside of Troy Aikman Greeney that the Dallas Cowboys have drafted in 31 years. And you can go get him moving into a new stadium and you're trying to get over the hump to beat the Chiefs. You're the Ravens and you have a chance to get a player like Micah Parsons. Who knows, maybe the Chargers, who knows who else steps in, but the fact that they didn't

create a sense of urgency in March was a massive mistake that will cost this franchise for years because you just don't know who else would have stepped up back then.

That's the point. I think for all the people yesterday that I was seeing on social media and other places saying, well, they're better off not having paid all that money for him. That's fine. If that's the way you feel, that's one thing. But this was not the way to go about it. This was not done, this was not planned.

This wound up being forced upon them. Okay, I have made you guys wait too long. Dan Orlovsky, you've heard all of this. This is how it happened, this is where we are. What's your reaction? Good organizations do not trade Hall of Fame players in their primes. Right now, the Cowboys are not a good organization. This will go down as one of the worst trades in the history of their football team and

their organization. They traded away a future Hall of Famer for what likely will be the 28th to the 32nd pick in the first round. Right. The Packers are going to be good as long as Jordan Love is healthy. You got two picks that are basically early second round picks and depending on if the draft is loaded with talent or not could be very invaluable to that football team.

I think the shine for the Cowboys is gone because of this. When I grew up, no one left the Dallas Cowboys. Nobody. The fact that this was Micah initiating, I don't want to be here anymore. The allure of the star feels gone.

They got fleeced. This is not a trade that you can sit here and go, well, they're going to use those picks to go get Arch Manning. Arch Manning ain't going to be there at 30 when you guys are picking in two years. So I look at this and go, from a business perspective,

Jerry Jones 100% lost this negotiation. From a football perspective, Jerry Jones and the Cowboys 100% lost this negotiation. This is one of the, as far as we won or lost, worst days in the Cowboys since Jerry Jones has owned them. And this is like the, remember after the Green Bay Packers

debacle in the playoffs? He could not have handled from that moment

to this moment worse.

By the way, Kenny Clark, the player they get in this will be 30 in October. Really good player, but obviously an aging player. Dee Wood, go.

Jerry Jones reminds me right now of Al Davis at the end of his career. It's almost sad to see, to be honest with you. Jerry Jones has done a lot for the game of football. Everyone knows that he's in the Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame owner.

The marketing aspect, the business acumen, he's done so much for the game of football. But when you see a move like this, it just, it makes you sad for him and the Dallas Cowboys because this is inconceivable to move again. Like Dan talked about a Hall of, potentially Hall of Fame play, a Hall of Fame talent in Michael Parson, literally right before week one,

when you pull, when you supposed to play the Philadelphia Eagles

or to, you know, low round first round, first round draft fix. You are not going to get players, deal away

you make this move in March when you can literally open up the floodgates to all their teams. If someone wants to, you know, give you, you know, a King's ransom, not before the season. That's why I said this. This Jerry Jones just

reminds me of Al Davis right now. I think that's why this is so shocking, right? Because the Cowboys always signed the guy. No matter how dragged out it gets, right? Now, Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb just last year, like we're used to this. This was not the plan. Something changed.

And that's, I think, part of the reason it lives as a huge mistake. Because if you get off your plan, then you end up making mistakes.

And I think that's what happened for the Cowboys. We've been there when you run a team so many decisions have it and let's say your plan change greedy You just put a band-aid on it. We just talked about that with Trey Hendrickson again You don't get George Pickens on a one-year deal to start rebuilding four months later before you play games

Ironically the Cowboys make this trade yesterday on the same day that Forbes values them at 13 billion Dollars, which is 24 percent higher than any other team in the NFL.

Schafty, go.

They're talking about the timing of the trade being off, the fact that the Cowboys should have looked to deal him in March, should have casted a wider net, even though I think there were multiple suitors here for Micah Parsons. But here was a call or two that I got after the trade came down yesterday. They asked why are the Dallas Cowboys trading Micah

Parsons in the conference? Why are they trading him to a team that has knocked them out of the playoffs in each of the last three years? Why are they not looking to deal him to an AFC team so that there will be one less obstacle as they try to use those picks and that player Kenny Clark to try to get back to the Super Bowl. I heard that from a couple of football executives yesterday that they would have better off dealing him in the AFC rather than

to the team that's knocked him out of the playoffs last three years. But I think in the end this this is also true. And this came from another executive as well. Jerry Jones felt like this was his modern day version of a Hershel Walker trade. He felt like he needed to do something dramatic to shake up things for a team that has not reached the conference championship game in 30 years,

that has not gotten past the divisional playoff game in 30 years, that has not gotten past the divisional playoff round in 30 years. And by making a blockbuster, shocking trade, the way he once did with Herschel Walker, he could inject youth and picks and another player into his team and recreate some of that excitement that the Cowboys had the last time they went on an extended postseason run.

But he's wrong thinking that.

That's the whole problem.

No one is sitting here going, trading Micah Parsons is the dumbest thing you can do. Everybody, whether you're deep into the front office operations of how it all works, or you cover the sport, your analyst is sitting here going,

you did this a week before the season, and then you did it to a team that is going to be picking late in the first round. You didn't do it with a team like the Jags, or the Browns, or somebody that has a higher likelihood of struggling, and then those picks

become the transformation. That's the crux of this, is for the guy who's running the football team,

this doesn't make football sense.

Here's rehearsal Walker trade. They got three first round picks, three second round picks, a third round pick and a six

round pick.

I mean, I mean, there it is. Yeah. So like to me again, do we get there in March guys? I can't say here in good conscience you get there, but what I can tell you is being on the other end of these calls for 20 years guys when you get a 26 year old future hall of fame pass rusher in their pride those are the sort of things you think about.

How many how many game wreckers are there in the NFL? Maybe it does. That's high. Game wreckers not probably six or seven. TJ Watt, Miles Garrett, Max Crosby, Dexter. Those are this guy is a game wrecker. He wrecks football games. You don't just give them away for a player that might be drafted at 28 or 30 and hope is an impactful player.

You just gave them away.

You know what Jimmy Johnson didn't do? He didn't orchestrate the Herschel Walker trade in one day because they were starting preparation for the Eagles on Friday and they didn't want this hanging over them, so they made sure they did it on Thursday. That was a calculated decision that made a lot of sense

in a variety of ways. It was criticized at the time. I was covering the NFL at that time. There were people who were criticizing the Cowboys for trading away the player. Obviously, they get the last laugh.

It was the way they built the dynasty. That is a, this is so far from that, both in planning and in execution, that it really doesn't, they don't belong in the same sentence. Now, we will have plenty more time.

Pardon me, I'm choked up just thinking about it all.

This organization never swung like this with Aaron Rodgers. They never made a trade like this when they had Aaron Rodgers. This is an all-in move with Jordan Love. So now it's an offense that is loaded, but you talk about Rashawn Gary, who's their other pass rusher, and Mike Parsons. That's the best pass rush duo in the NFC now,

in the whole conference. So the Packers were a team that was just maybe a tier below. Now they are right there and fully equipped to knock off the Eagles and represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. And this is now a couple-year window where Jordan Love can go get it done for an organization

that has had elite quarterbacks and not enough Super Bowl wins in the last 20 years.

When you talk about just a tier below, Packers lost seven games last year. One was a throwaway at the end. They didn't start their guys. The others were two to the Eagles, two to the Vikings, two to the Lions. The three best teams in the NFC last year. That's the only games they lost that they were trying to win. So they are right there. So what are they doing? They draft a wide receiver in the first round

for the first time in more than two decades. That's unlike them. A move like this is unlike them. But this is a team.

By the way they think.

That was the thing I was going to say. This is an incredibly young roster. Now you bring in a guy Michael Parsons, who again is 26 years old. Just think about it. All this talent is going to grow together. This nucleus is going to be together for quite some time. They have a long runway to do a lot of damage moving forward. Let me put a 67 up just so

you get a sense of what how this was met in Vegas. ESPN Sportsbook now has Green Bay at 14 to 1 to win the Super Bowl plus 550 to win the NFC and co-favorites to win the division with the Lions.

So you see those are pretty significant. If you don't speak gambling, those are pretty significant jumps that came on the heels of the Parsons trade. And here's why, Greeny. When you build

a team, the first thing you think about is how do we win the division? So if we were all running the Green Bay Packers, we talk about the great offense of the Detroit Lions, all the talent that the Vikings have, assuming J.J. McCarthy is going to be good, and the high variance of what the Bears could be. You have to be able to rush the passer consistently to Dan's point with Rashawn Gary on one side and Parsons who he knows can get double-teamed on every snap. It's the best pass rush do on the NFC now. Yeah, it's an unbelievable front seven. So now we could go, you know, compete against Jared Goff. We could go compete against

that Viking offense. That's why those odds shift. Greeny, think about it in this regard as well. If you're Jordan Love, what's the one thing that everyone says about Jordan Love? He turns it over. Don't matter. If I'm Matt, we are going to be ridiculously aggressive on offense because our defense is gonna be so good and Micah's gonna get after so many quarterbacks. They'll get it back for us. We'll be fine. Right.

So the turn even if he keeps turning it over your turnover differential will shrink because your defense is going to get.

Yeah, absolutely.

Let me get. And a chance to get back in here. How about the Packer side of this?

Well I could tell you a few things here that are really interesting, Green. I could tell you in speaking to a few members of that organization yesterday, I have been about the prospect of Micah being traded there. And after the trade came down, they texted me back that that was all they could think about the last couple of days was the idea that Micah Parsons would wind up in their organization, which in the end, ultimately is what happened. And I go back to August of 1992,

the San Francisco 49ers president and CEO, Carmen Policy, traded Charles Haley to the Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones and the people in the Cowboys organization have said for years that was the trade that got the Dallas Cowboys over the hump and enabled them to win Super Bowls. Now we fast forward to August 2025, the Dallas Cowboys trade that type of pass rusher in Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers,

whose new president and CEO is Ed Policy, the son of Carmen Policy. The Packers go out and get the player, essentially, who is one of two players in NFL history to have at least 12 sacks in each of his first four seasons. Micah Parsons and the other, somebody that Green Bay knows a little bit about, Reggie White. So this trade looks like it has the chance to really work out quite well for Green Bay.

As you get a sense here, the magnitude of this is enormous. There are great gambling implications of it as well, and for that we have Joe Fortenbaugh with us all morning long. He'll give us some stuff on the NFL and on the college as the morning continues. But let's start right here. We have the trade yesterday.

What is your best bet on the Packers coming out of this?

I want you to take a look at Jordan Love to win the MVP at 18 to 1. Long term, you're not going to make money buying high and selling low. So if you're waking up this morning saying, on Green Bay to win the Super Bowl or I want to bet on Dallas to finish last, those markets have already been adjusted. You're walking into a buzzsaw. What you want to do is look for an ancillary market whose price hasn't been affected

quarterbacks. 12 straight MVPs have been one or two seeds. 21 of the last 22 MVPs have won 12 or more games. So if you believe Micah Parsons is going to help Green Bay win a lot of games, this is the best way to take advantage of a good price that hasn't been affected as much by yesterday's trade.

As we approach the bottom of the hour, we're back on Get Up on ESPN with our top story. The Cowboys sending superstar edge rusher Micah Parsons to the Packers in exchange for defensive tackle Kenny Clark and Green Bay's first-round pick in each of the next two drafts. Parsons gets a four-year 188 million dollar contract. 120 guaranteed at signing 136 million in total

guarantees making him the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history. He went on social media and was pretty simple in his response. Thank you, Dallas go pack go. So So that's his side. As for Jerry Jones, here's why he thinks this makes his team

better.

This trade was not just thought about today. This trade has been going on in our minds and our strategies and being talked about. It's been going on all spring. The facts are, specifically, we need to stop the run. And we haven't been able to stop the run at key times for several years. And when you have the kind of extraordinary pass rush that Michael had, then the way to mitigate that pass rush is to run at you.

Holy moly, dude.

That's a lot of mental gymnastics.

That feels like he's like four years behind. Like three or four, no duh.

It's tough to explain something that's that's inexplicable. So you that's the that's the

problem.

So in order to stop the run, you got to trade away.

Got to trade.

My compars got to trade Michael

Paul.

I came to the conclusion that

he only plays on passing down.

Yeah, like do you you were

watching a highlight? We're showing highlight to him a dispute. He's so freaking good. Like you're watching him accelerate through the whole. I mean, I don't know. It's unbelievable. And he doesn't just do that. He was an off the ball linebacker in college. There are people who say if he wanted to play corner, he's

the most freakishly talented defensive player in the NFL with the exception of no one greedy

five days from today. The Dallas Cowboys are on a plane to play the Philadelphia Eagles. Brian Schottenheimer has waited his whole life to be a head coach of the NFL. He has an offense that could be playoff bound and a defense that has questions at pass rush, linebacker with the injuries to Damari and Overshown, and massive questions at corner. So to me, like, if you're Brian Schottenheimer and Sunday, and Kroos talked about this on NFL Live yesterday, Sunday is Wednesday. Like they are in a plane in five days. What is Brian Schottenheimer saying today to his team?

Well, they haven't had them all camp. I mean, like they've been preparing. Right, right. I get, I get what you're saying, but I mean, what Brian Schottenheimer is saying to his team is not, oh God, we're in trouble. Scott came out and said, it's going to get done. It always gets done. Schottenheimer said that. Brian said that, was it Monday?

Right, right.

This week? I mean, very few days ago, Brian Schottenheimer said, I fully expect Micah Parsons to be on the field against the Eagles. And we all reacted to that. You were here with me that day.

This is why I go back to the moment of the Green Bay Packers loss and saying that day after this should be a full restart because for him to sit there and say, Jerry Jones, we're struggling to stop the run. This has been the case for four years. You could have done multiple things over the last three years to be better at stopping the run. This has been the case for four years. You could have done multiple things over the last three years to be better at stopping the run. You draft Mazi Smith in the first round. That hasn't panned out. But there are so many other options that you can go about. This is why I say that not a good organization right now. They're just not because

while they've drafted some nice players specifically on the offensive line, there's no way that you, because guess what, Mr. Jones, happens when you stop the run. Teams have to pass. And then you want a pass rusher that can go get the quarterback,

and you just gave them away for the 30th pick of the NFL draft. You're not gonna stop the run with that player either. And so that's why you just look at this compounding effect over the last couple seasons, and it feels they're so detached to what reality is. Howie Roseman a couple years ago drafted Jalen Carter

when many teams wouldn't because of reasons that are justified. Yesterday they traded away Micah Parsons when no other team would have done that in the prime of his career. And we're still trying to figure out the reason why.

That's the problem.

So let's try and figure out what this team now is. They go in here. I've got for B30 I can put up there. The line moved one point on this trade yesterday. The Eagles had been a six and a half point favorite prior to this trade. They're now a seven and a half point favorite. So that moves one point there.

We'll talk to Joe Fortenbaugh about the significance of that That is a pretty significant number. So if we're in a division now where the Eagles are clearly the cream of the crop you got the commanders who had a miraculous

They've got a great young quarterback.

They feel like they're on the come up. The Giants feel like there's finally some good vibes there. We'll see. I mean, of course, they haven't played a game yet. Everyone has going to have good vibes before the game start. The point is the Giants finally feel like they're getting a little bit better. What are the Cowboys now without Michael Parsons?

We went into this season with Michael Parsons thinking that the Dallas Cowboys were third in the division. Right. in the division. Right now, you take a player of the caliber of Michael Parsons off of this team. They're significantly worse. We know they're getting a quarterback Dak Prescott who missed that miss significant games last year. But anytime you take you take away a top five player in the National Football

League off your team. I mean, we could be making a case that they're the they could be the worst team in the division.

And greedy more than that. There's an intangible here. I'm just telling you, if you're doing this for two decades, when players would come up to me and say, hey Mike, you blew it. Like, this player leaving is really going to cost the morale of the team. Like, this player leaving is really going to cost the morale of the team. And when Dak Prescott and Brian Schottenheimer and all these guys are saying, like, well